Treasure
by Winged Dancer
Summary: Every memory is a tresure to be kept in a chest and then put apart, so that it won't ever fade away. Collection of Sheelos oneshots, will contain many themes and genres. 3.1: Tragic Love
1. Normal 1 First Step ¨¨Hajime no Ippo¨¨

**Don't be frightened by the number of chapters. **Read this instead.

**O-Dai **is a term some of you might be familiar with, and some of you may have not heard f it before.

From the Japanese "O-Dai" basically means "Theme". The Japanese have the custom in which, given a game or a certain character, a list of Themes (O-Dai) is given by a single person (a web-master, most of the time) and the rest of the people are invited to use those themes.

The most common O-dai is a drawing. However, my drawing skills aren't all good, so I've decided to write them instead.

This isn't a work meant to be connected in between. All of these stories are to be read as individual one-shots, and my main objective is to write as many as possible so that the fans can have enough of their "literature".

So say one day you're feeling like reading something dark and angsty. Then you just choose from one whose title includes the category "Dark". If you're feeling in for fluff, you can just find one of the "10 Cups of Sugar" one while you may read the "Normal" one when you just want light romance.

The O-dai I've decided to use come from the Zeroshii-Wa, which will be linked at the top of every chapter, and whose link can be found in my profile as well. I chose them because there are many of them. Do visit, but don't steal please.

http//deburu98249.jog. /

**Disclaimer:** Tales of Symphonia, Zelos Wilder, Sheena Fujibayashi and any other character that might appear here are not of my belonging nor do I claim ownership over them in any way.

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**Warnings:** Varied innuendo (nothing too bad), there might be some spicy humor (this is Zelos people, c'mon), random fluff, bunch-of-one-shots. There might be some OOC at some point or another.

* * *

Normal Version,

**#1 – A First Step**

* * *

Some people said that the first step was the hardest. That everything afterwards came naturally.

How many first steps were needed, Sheena wondered?

From her point of view _they_ had already stepped forward. Zelos had gone to visit her and instead of making some sorry excuse he had simply explained said he had wanted to see her face.

Wasn't that a good enough first step? It should be, she thought. Then why weren't things moving naturally and smoothly? They were still friends and they still quarreled like elementary school kids every now and then and he still flirted with every single woman alive.

Perhaps, the summoner had decided one day, it was because he was expecting her to do something too. Being the idiot he was he didn't realize she, too, just wanted to see his face.

But to say something like that… to step forward! It was too difficult for her, and instead came easy to him, it seemed. He was _always_ stepping forward with women.

Then why had it felt so different then, standing under the morning sun at Mizuho?

…because it _had_ been different. Because he was being sincere. Had it been hard for him? Had he been afraid?

"Sheeee-naaaaa," she snapped out of her reverie to find the one who had been occupying her thoughts half-glaring at her, resting his head on one hand on top the table. The over-all effect was like being glared at by a puppy. "You've been distracted all day long! You weren't even listening right now, were you?"

In front of her there was a half-melted ice cream. "A – As if you were saying anything important!"

"How would you know! You weren't listening! I could have even been saying the King has secret plans to invade Sylvarant…"

"The King wants to invade Sylvarant?"

Again the silly hurt look. "Of course not…! You weren't listening properly even _now_, see?" the redheaded sighed and let his head fall onto the table. "And I had finally gotten some free time to spend with you, too…"

"Feh. You sound as if I being distracted was the worst thing that could've happened today…" Sheena went back to eating what was left of her ice cream.

"Well, yeah… you could've cancelled."

"See? Stop whining then."

"Fine, fine," he whined anyway, without getting up from the table. "I'll try and settle for having you here."

He had been doing _that_ a lot, lately. At every possible chance he would remind her that he was always wanting to see her, or that he was happy when they were together, or that he really enjoyed talking with her.

Was he in love?

Was _she_ in love? That one was trickier.

Perhaps that was the first step. Forget all about kisses and holding hands and looking into each other's eyes. That came out later, right? Naturally. Smoothly.

The first step was just admitting, perhaps… admitting that she, too, was always waiting for a chance to see him, that she too was happy when they were together…

Well, it was easy enough to admit that to oneself. Now, to tell _him_…

"Sheeee-naaaaa, you're getting distracted again!"

…well, that was harder.

"Stop whining already, I told you!"

"But you aren't paying any attention to me today! That's not fair!"

"Zelos, you're acting like a four-year old…"

"If that's what it takes to make you look at me, then…"

"Don't you dare…"

"I wannan ice-cream!"

"You already had one."

"Then I want cotton candy! And I wanna ride a pony!"

"Fine, I'll give you my undivided attention but _shut up_!"

With an all-too satisfied grin Zelos got up and, taking her by the arm, dragged her out of the small café and into the city, where Sheena had to concentrate in order to stop thinking and pay attention to him.

It wasn't that hard after the first seven minutes: Zelos was something (or someone, whichever fit) that always managed to enclose her and make her forget about everything that wasn't warm and had red hair and blue eyes.

Perhaps that's why it had seemed so urgent lately that she, too, stepped forward.

So later, once the sky was covered by the stars and he had accompanied her all the way to the gates of Mizuho, she decided it was now or never.

(or perhaps now or in a few more weeks, but that would be being a coward, and that was the one thing Sheena Fujibayashi didn't consider herself to be)

"So," he had said, sounding quite happy with the way things had gone, "When d'you think I'll be able to see you again, mh?"

She looked at his eyes, sparkling even in the darkness, and felt a knot quickly forming in her throat.

"Not saying? Then I guess I'll have to decide…"

"Soon."

He blinked and half-smiled. "What did you say hunny? I don't think I heard you correctly…"

"You stupid Chosen! You heard me perfectly well!"

"Ooh, I seem to be suffering of sudden deafness! Care to repeat that word from before?"

"Soon! I want to see you soon! Happy now? You idiot!"

Zelos, however, didn't seem to have heard the last words, since he lifted her up in a tight hug. "Of couuuurse I'm happy! Because now you can't say no when I ask you out, you know! Ahahahahahahahaha, yay!"

"You just _said_ 'yay', didn't you? Lemme down already, you perverted Chosen!"

"Aheheheheh… nope."

"…idiot."

Funny how every time one of them stepped forward it ended with him laughing and her calling him an idiot. Well, it wasn't as if she meant it. So it wasn't a bad thing.

And perhaps it all didn't mean much. But it was fine for the moment… a first step was a first step, right?

* * *

**Notes:** Er, ah…

_There's still not enough Zeroshii/Sheelos in the world!_

(if you noticed, my reasons for writing the Rodeo Ride Tour was exactly the same - not enough Sheelos)

And I don't have time to write a long, multi-chapter story, so… even though I don't very much like writing one-shots, I've decided to imitate the Japanese fans and write the

So I'm starting with the "Normal Version", afterwards we have the "Fun Version", then the "Dark Version" and finally the "10 Cups of Sugar" version. I don't know whether I'll be good at writing these things though… it's the first time I'll try my hand at any O-dai.

And yes, I'm planning on doing them all. So you might get _a lot_ of short stories. Or you might not – on what depends? First, the amount of free time I have. Then, inspiration. Finally, response… as superficial as this might sound, good reviews do encourage writers, and even more when/if they have ideas and critique included.

So there! I'll try to update once or twice a week.

_WDR_

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Next O-Dai

#2 – Meeting

(so now you know what kind of ideas I could use!)

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	2. Normal 2 Meeting ¨¨Deai¨¨

**Disclaimer:** All appearing characters and places belong to Namco.

The O-dai themes belong to the Zeroshii-Wa, at http/deburu98249.jog. but written correctly. Anyone know how to write an URL here without it getting butchered?

* * *

Normal Version,

**#2 – Meeting**

* * *

"Do you remember when we met?"

"Mmmh… dunno. It was back when we were just brats, right?"

"_I_ was never a brat, thank you very much."

"Ohohohoh, but you were!"

"So suddenly you remember?"

"The Great Zelos never forgets the moment he meets one of his hunnies, because he might be questioned about it later."

"Don't talk about memories as if they were a school test, idiot."

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You had walked into the city, feeling scared and lonely. Gradfather hadn't woken up and everyone was still angry at you, only Kuchinawa and Orochi alone talked to you and they were sometimes scolded because of that.

Tiga had said it would do you good to visit the city: there was a school there which would do you good, and you might be able to find new friends there. But you knew better, you knew that it was because everybody there was still resentful and they would feel better if the cursed child was away.

**----û----û----û----û----û----û----û----û----û----û----û----û----û----û----û----û----û----û----û----û----û----û----û----û----û----û----û----û----û----û----û----**

"So I assume you're happy I remember then?"

"Hah! You prize yourself too highly."

"How about you then?"

"What?"

"Do _you_ remember how we met?"

"Of course I do. I have good memory for –"

"Then you tell me."

"What? Why should I?"

"I want to make sure you're not lying! You could be asking me just because you don't remember!"

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You were thankful to Tiga, at least a little. You understood it was all for the good of the village and for your own good too.

But it still hurt.

The city was enormous and full of people walking much faster than anyone in Mizuho ever did. You knew you were supposed to find the Research Laboratory but you didn't know what a 'Research Laboratory' was supposed to look like and no one was paying you any attention.

"Ah – excuse me – I'm – I'm very sorry…" you tried to call someone and ask directions but no one had time for the little and rather dirty girl dressed in funny clothes. "I don't mean to be rude, but… ah…"

A few seconds later a ball rolled past you and about five boys, all older than you, followed it running. As the rest of the adults they didn't see you or maybe they didn't care and then pushed you onto the cobblestones.

And it was your lucky day, too, because you landed on a puddle.

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"I hated that day for years and years afterwards! It was just... bad."

"Aw, couldn't be that terrible."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah. You met me, after all!"

"That's what topped it off."

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"Aw, what is such a beauty doing sitting on the mu... aw man, you're just a kid, ain't ya?" What had started as the first kind words changed into a rather derisive sneer.

In anger you turned around and found a boy with flaming red hair framing his face. His clothes and hair, everything had been arranged with great care and he was looking at you as if you were the most boring thing ever.

So you splashed as much mud as you could at him. "You are a kid, too!"

"Am not!" he yelled back, jumping away from your attacks, but the damage was done and most of his clothes ruined, even his face had some dirt now. He looked at his clothes and then glared at you. "I'm almost fourteen, and you're gonna pay for my clothes!"

And you weren't even eleven. And those looked expensive. Ooops. He got up, glowering at his pants and then at you and you suddenly felt scared because you realized he was so much taller.

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"Why were you even talking like that?"

"Like what?"

"You know… your pick-up lines. Weren't you a bit too young for that?"

"Mmmh… well, dunno. Can't remember when women started to notice my manliness."

"What manliness?"

"The one you tried to ruin by getting mud all over me."

"You had it coming anyway. When you see a girl sitting on the mud about to cry, you don't really act like that."

"Yeah, I know. But you _were_ a kid."

"So were you."

"Yeah..."

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You though perhaps he would hit you, like some of the boys in Mizuho did. And this time there were no Orochi and no Kuchinawa around to defend you... of course you had your cards and you could do some moves on your own, but he was so much _taller_. He was right, you noticed – he wasn't a boy, he was a man.

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"What, you admit you were a brat then?"

"I was thirteen. _Thirteen_! You wouldn't call me an adult, would you?"

"I wouldn't call you an adult nowadays either."

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So you raised your hands as if to defend yourself but the 'man' stared at you, as if he had suddenly noticed something.

"...you ain't from around here, right kid?"

You figured you had two options: to play it tough and risk being beaten or to play it nice and maybe you'd get some help.

"...no."

"You're from Mizuho, right?"

"How – how did you know?"

"Oooh, I know stuff," he had grinned at you.

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"If I had only known back then..."

"About what? About how great my greatness is?"

"About how frankly easy it is to beat you up."

"Wh- now, do you think I would've let myself be beaten up by a ten year old girl?"

"You mean to say you would've actually hit a ten year old girl?"

"I – you -! ...of course not. Sheesh!"

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He had taken your arm and dragged you behind him, literally because you kept trying to break free, so you kicked and punched at what you could – you even bit him at some point.

But he had kept laughing, dodging your attacks. "I heard they are waiting for you there," he had said, pointing to a white and blue building, "But you can't go there yet!"

"Why not?"

"Because they're expecting the good-will ambassador from Mizuho, not a girl covered in mud!" he had laughed here before dragging you away, up a big set of stairs. "I can't wait to see their face when they find it's just a girl!"

"I'm – I'm not a girl!"

"Yeah, yeah... you know, yousure as hell don't look like a boy."

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"You sure as hell don't look like a boy nowadays either. Aw, don't look at me like that, take a compliment will you? I'm just saying you're very feminine… where it counts, too…"

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"Where are you taking me?" and why was no one stopping him? Even with the scandal you were making people still didn't seem to care or worst even, some smiled and waved at the 'man', laughing at the scene.

"To my home. I'll get your clothes clean."

"I don't need them clean!"

"Yes you do!"

"No I don't you – you big dummy! Pee-pee-head!"

He had laughed.

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"You really didn't know how to insult people."

"I was ten years old, and people in Mizuho are much more polite than in the city."

"I noticed that. Pee-pee-head? Hahahahahaha..."

"Why were you so intent on getting my clothes clean, anyway?"

"Mmmmh, if I have to guess..."

"Yes?"

"I have psychic powers and had foreseen the babe you would turn into and thus decided to help you."

"Ah, really? What do your psychic powers tell you will be happening if you don't learn to shut up?"

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"Chosen!"

"Chosen! Your clothes!"

"Oh, Master Zelos, whatever happened to your hair?"

You had barely entered the man's house when you realized that no matter what he said, he was still a boy. Two maids and a man with a funny mustache immediately ran to his side and started fussing around him, one trying to clean his face with a scrap of cloth, another trying to get the mud off the pants and the man trying to comb his hair.

"Stop it! Just – Sebastian! I'm not a kid anymoooreeeee!"

You giggled at how he flapped his arms to keep the servants away and then it clicked.

Chosen?

Zelos?

You had heard of the Chosen. It was someone who was supposed to keep the world healthy, right? Grandfather had said so once. Then why was the Chosen a kid?

He had seemed to read your mind or perhaps you were making funny faces because once more he glared at you. "What? Were you expecting some old man?"

Rather dumbly, you nodded.

"Master Zelos will become an old man with time, Miss, so don't worry," the man with the funny mustache had said, laconically, and then returned to trying to fix the boy's hair.

"Lemme alone!" he re-undid his hair and still glared at you. "Even the Chosen are born normally, you know? Don't they teach you anything at that magic village thing of yours?"

You shook your head. "I thought the Angels brought the Chosen themselves..."

"Nah, they just come for the prophecy."

"Then… you have a mother and a father, too?"

Silence followed your words and the servants looked at each other, nervous But before any could say anything he started.

"Well, yeah, of course I had! How did you think I was born then?"

"Ah, of course… that's why they are mothers, right? Because they have children."

You were young and hadn't ever heard of diplomacy, so you didn't even realize he had said 'had'.

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"I really didn't know when to shut my mouth..."

"Nobody could blame you. You were barely ten."

"But still."

"But still nothing. Just... don't think about it."

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Your clothes were handed back to you clean and warm and you dressed quickly. In the hall, Zelos was yelling at the maids that he would guide you to the institute while the maids were begging him to please take a shower and put on some nice clothes.

"Chosen One, please understand, the Princess will be waiting..."

"I don't wanna play with Hilda! She's boring!"

"Master Zelos, please remember what we talked about appointments with the Royal Family..."

"But I wanna go to the Research Institute! They have my crystal there! I have the right to see it when I want to!"

After much yelling, a pouting Zelos said goodbye to you at his door.

"If you ever come to the city again, come to visit if you want," you weren't sure whether he was saying so just out of politeness but you were also too young to doubt people.

"Really?"

"Sure."

"I promise then!"

And you had skipped down the noble quartet, waved good-bye at him and ran to the laboratory, where they had looked very surprised you were so young and, after many tests, asked you to come back in a few years...

But perhaps you could be back earlier, to visit that boy again.

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"And it took you five years to come back. Real nice."

"They wouldn't give me permission before. Things had changed a lot when I finally returned to Meltokio."

"Tell me about it. You had suddenly grown these huge – ouch! You don't even warm me anymore?"

"What's the use of it? Pervert! I was only fifteen!"

"Almost sixteen! That spells 'legal game' in my book, babe."

"Yeah, I remember I noticed _most_ women were labeled like that for you."

"And you got jealous? Aw hunny, that's so cute of you."

"As if! I, unlike someone else, had matured during those years."

"Cruel as ever, Sheena... but, you know?"

"What?"

"I don't think I've ever regretted meeting you."

"Hm. There are times I do regret it."

"Aw, and I was being serious and all..."

"We-well, I said there are _times_, right? I – Its not like I regret it _all_ of the time...! I – I mean -"

"Next time you visit Meltokio, could you drop by my house?"

"Ah... sure. What for?"

"To get your clothes cleaned. Only this time I won't be giving them back."

"...don't push your luck, Chosen..."

"No slap this time? Heheheheh. I'll think myself victorious then..."

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**Notes:** I did say once or twice a week, right? If I do manage to keep that schedule up, then it'll be around wednesady and sunday. It'll depend on the inspiration, I guess... anyway, this one came out bigger than intended. I'm not so proud of it but what the hell, if anything these things will serve as good experiments.

To address a few things I found in the reviews... O-dai or Odai, that's something I've discussed for hours with a friend. The 'O' isn't part of the word but a manner of speech, I say, therefore the hyphen... but without the 'O' it'd lose its meaning, says the friend, therefore no hyphen. It really doesn't matter.

Also, and more importantly, the thing about O-dai is that they drop you straight into the story – they don't explain when did they get together nor why, in fact sometimes they'll be together and some others not. O-dai seem to think "You get the pairing, nothing else matters" or perhaps O-dai are PWP ('Plot? What Plot', not the other, you pervs).

So yeah. Everything will change from one story to the other – in some it might be before the adventure, in some afterwards, in some they'll already be together, in others not yet or not at all, etc...

Thanks for reading, and even more for reviewing... I was truthfully surprised at how many reviews I got in such a short space of time. Thanks, thanks, thanks to Urby, luigimania, Tamerlane, Suzu Fujibayashi, Presea de OompaLoompa, Eliannora, TUF STUFF II, The Zelda Master, AmaDono and StrawberryEggs.

_WDR_

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Coming Next

_#3 – Parting_

* * *


	3. Normal 3 Parting ¨¨Wakare¨¨

**Disclaimer:** All appearing characters and places belong to Namco.

The O-dai themes belong to the Zeroshii-Wa, at http/deburu98249.jog. but written correctly. If you visit, don't steal!

**Warnings:** Might be angsty. More experimental heterodiagetic narration! Whoo.

**Also**, I'd like y'all to _read_ this – there's this **theory** going around the internets which says that Zelos and Sheena used to **date** before she was sent to _Sylvarant_. I don't know whether **that** is true or not, but I decided to use said theory for this _O-dai_ for reasons that are **explained** at the author_notes _at the end of the **fic**. Did the _random_ **blackies** and underlined stuff get your **attention**? I sure _hope_ they did_ They _**were **a _pain **to **_**_write_**!

**

* * *

**

Normal Version,

**#3 – Parting**

**

* * *

**

"I've been thinking…"

"Mmh?"

"That perhaps we should end things."

"Ah really?"

"…yes. I have… things to do."

"Ah really?"

"Is that all you're going to say? I… you don't even care, do you?"

He looked at her, shrugged and half-turned to the side. "I do. But what were you expecting me to do? Yell? Cry? Throw myself down and beg? Pfft. The Great Zelos begs to no-one, hunny."

She crossed her arms and sighed in annoyance, looking to the opposite side too.

"Besides…" Zelos continued resting his head on his arms. "It makes things easier, right?"

"Yes, I suppose it does."

What a lie.

Nothing could make things easier, and they both knew that.

Sheena had been aware that it would have to be her the first to speak, but that didn't mean she had _wanted_ to. To say those words… 'Perhaps we should end things', it had been difficult. She had been afraid, she had been sad, she had been struggling to keep calm.

Zelos had been aware that things were coming to an end. He had heard of her mission, and he knew she might not come back at all. So he knew she would want to end things. But to hear it… 'Perhaps we should end things', it had been much worse than he had imagined. He had been afraid, and now he could feel a sharp ache within his chest.

Because…

…how could _she_ be so cool about it?

And

…how could _he_ be so cool about it?

How could _she_? Just that, 'Perhaps we should end things', as if she was talking about how pretty the sky looked. Did nothing matter to her? Their memories, his feelings…?

How could _he_? Just that, 'Ah, really?', as if they were talking about how what nice the weather was today. Did nothing matter to him? The times they spent together, her feelings…?

Perhaps he never had feelings for her.

Perhaps she never had feelings for him.

Silence.

Awkward, tense silence.

Unsaid words, repressed emotions. So hard to keep cool, to pretend they didn't care. That silence would only bring more pain never occurred to them.

To speak would mean to face the other; to face the other would mean to break down; to break down would mean to lose.

And they were too proud.

"Is it because of Sylvarant?"

She looked startled and then nodded, barely allowing her eyes to look at him for a fraction of second. "You know about the declining world?"

"Heard from the Renegades. They informed the Meltokio axis – the King, the Pope and me."

"Then you know why I need to go there."

"To assassinate their Chosen, right?"

"Yes."

"Sounds pretty cruel, to kill an entire world's hope. But, heh, it's a dog eat dog world, right?"

"Yes… and that's why I might not come back."

"…"

"They'll fight back. They won't let their only chance at regeneration die so easily."

"…then why are you even going?" there. After a few seconds of silence, he had managed to speak – a slip of the tongue, with all the emotions he had contained for the last minutes condensed in that hoarse whisper; a weak flicker of hope.

And so she answered the only reason she could actually think of – "…because," and just like him her voice trembled.

The two took a minute of two to recover.

"Heheheh," he laughed falsely, "You, Miss Professional Ninja, should learn how to take a vacation."

She managed to smile, too. "And you, Mr. Chosen of Mana, should learn when to stop taking them."

Ah yes, he was the Chosen. For a moment there he had almost forgotten about that and tried to act human.

How silly of him.

Well, that was just one more reason to keep cool, right? Never mind about his dignity and reputation, never mind about how he actually wanted to hug her knees and just ask her to stay… the Chosen couldn't stoop to that kind of thing.

Even if Zelos Wilder wanted to.

"So…"

"So?"

"You haven't said what you think."

"I… haven't?"

"No. You just said you wouldn't beg."

"Right. So that's why you said 'So'?"

"Exactly."

"…I can't stop you, can I?"

"…even as the Chosen, this decision is backed by both the King and the Pope…"

"…I didn't mean it that way."

"…it's the same."

No, it wasn't. But what was the use of saying that?

"What I mean is I can't change your mind. I've tried to some other times, and it just doesn't work. There'd be no use in trying to tie you down or anything."

"So…?"

"If you want to end things then I'll just go along. I hate getting into trouble anyway."

"Oh I know about that," silence, and then, "Alright then."

"Yeah. Alright. I think you are too obstinate for me anyway," no she wasn't. He knew she wasn't.

"What?" but it was easier to have her angry.

"Yeah! I mean, we hardly did a thing! Cht, you're a nice girl but kinda boring as a date, if you ask me…"

"You idiot! I have to go to Goddess knows where and that's what you say to me?"

"What! I thought you liked honest people…?"

"There's such a thing as decency, moron!"

And off she was. But it was easier, he guessed, to have her angry. She would thank him one day.

Or perhaps not. But it would take her mind off things.

Meanwhile, he'd go back to being the Chosen.

Maybe he'd wait for her.

Even if she didn't.

**

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**

**Notes:** Man, was this one hard to write or what? Me doesn't like. I no good write angst.

If you read the warning at the top, you know about the "they used to date" theory. I can't confirm it – I don't even like the idea that much, and I haven't seen _anything_ that confirms it. As far as I know its just something the fans invented.

Why did I use it then? Well, this O-dai has a kinda complicated title. "Wakare" in Japanese means just "Parting", so I thought of writing a short "good-bye, see you next week" sweet thing. But then it occurred that, colloquially, "Wakare" is used for when a relationship ends… so "wakare" is then, commonly, "splitting up", so I changed it into what you read. Angsty, was it not? Creepy, given I'm not comfortable writing angst.

Anyway, again thanks for reviewing! I feel like answering the reviews, so… Tamerlane (I'm glad you caught the nostalgia), DarkNite109 (funny, I, too, don't usually go for only romance when I read and yet I write it), StrawberryEggs (I liked your fic! I wouldn't have reviewed if I didn't, really!), TUF STUFF (yes, small Sheena was fun to write 'cause she wants to be nice), Urby (YES RIVERS ARE EVIL!), lugimania (yay, you understand the greatness of O-Dai!) and Eliannora (heeeeeeh, glad you liked, even if it confused you at first, heh).

So there! See y'all someday during the weekend.

_WDR_

**

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**

Coming Next

_#4 – Adventure_


	4. Normal 4 Adventure ¨¨Bouken¨¨

**Disclaimer:** All appearing characters and places belong to Namco.

The O-dai themes belong to the Zeroshii-Wa, at http/deburu98249.jog. but written correctly. If you visit, don't steal!

**Setting:** During the game.

**Warnings:** Zelos. Some violence, but who cares about that? Oh, and ice. Nice, naughty ice. The ice may not be fit for young children! Some scenes can be interpreted in a very mature way, so read at your own risk.

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Normal Version,

**#3 – Adventure**

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Highway robberies were not very uncommon in Sylvarant.

Well, if you could call them that, Zelos said to himself, given that in Sylvarant there were no highways, just a few ways and lots of small mountain roads: exactly the kind of backwater road in where large groups of thieves could hide.

They had been heading towards Hima to rest at the Inn when they were intercepted by a group of six men and two women who, very creatively, demanded they gave them all of their money if they didn't want to get killed.

"Aaaah, and here I was thinking we'd get to sleep at a nice bed tonight!" Zelos whined, completely ignoring the glares the attackers were sending his way.

"I don't think that's what you should worry about," Raine sighed, but it was clear she wasn't very worried about the thieves either.

"But I'm tired, too..." Lloyd commented, half-messing his own hair.

"Not you too, Lloyd..."

Apparently tired of being ignored the leader of the thieves stepped forward, swinging a dagger in the air. "Stop talkin' if y'know what's good for ya!" he wasn't good at being threatening.

"Look," Sheena, the only one who had been on guard from the moment the men appeared, looked a little tired. Whether this was because of her companions of because of the thieves only she knew. "Look, if you want to get to the Inn then let's just hurry up and deal with those guys!"

"Hah!" one of the women laughed from the back-lines, "As if you brats could defeat us!"

Zelos heard Regal sigh and he guessed Raine was frowning. She was nearing her thirty and he was almost forty – hardly brats. And _he_ didn't like being called like that neither.

"Fine, fine..." he muttered to himself while drawing his sword, "This sort of thing never happened to me in Tethe'alla!"

"That's because there's no merit in attacking such an obviouswuss..." Genis muttered (quite audibly), his kendama bouncing up and down in the air. Good thing about unconventional weapons – the enemy didn't know what you were doing with them.

"I'm so _not_ a wuss! Road security is just better there!"

"You silly man," the other woman giggled, "How can there be roads on the moon?"

He blew a kiss at her. She wasn't pretty, but she had boobs, which made it all good. "Oh, I'd be glad to show them to you at any time, hunny."

The woman raised an eyebrow. "...what?"

That was time enough.

"_Eruption_!" called the boy in front of him and, as if on cue, the summoner, along with Lloyd, Colette and Presea all flew forward to attack.

"Heh," the (male) Chosen chuckled, absent-mindedly turning to the blue-haired man. "Guess that leaves us the back."

Genis was already chanting a new spell, and mana surrounded Raine as well.

"So it would seem," the 'prisoner' nodded, "Protect the spell casters."

"...I don't need to be told," he whined and then, without other warning, turned and impaled his sword into a nearby rock. "_Super Lighting Blade_!"

"R-agh! You bastard!" yelled the rock – or to be exact, a man that was supposedly hiding behind the rock, waiting at his chance to strike.

"Please, you think I didn't see you standing there?"

"Don't get distracted, Chosen!" Regal admonished, jumping and kicking a second man who had just emerged behind another boulder.

"Ah, yes, yes..."

It wasn't a difficult battle. Even if they were outnumbered the thieves' skill was no match for theirs – two fell before Presea's ax and Lloyd managed to knock out the leader with his first assault. Sheena, fast as usual, concentrated in attacking the two magic users, with Genis using various small spells to help her keep the two women off their feet. Raine kept the group's health up with her usual variety of support spells. In the back Zelos and Regal kept the three other men at bay with ease – the redheaded spinning, almost dancing, punctuating every few swipes with a fancy move; and the blue-haired business-man not stopping his flurry of kicks at any moment.

It was only a matter of minutes before the attackers went down.

"A-haHA! Man, was I great or what? 'You think I didn't see you standing there?' Hah!"

Sheena sighed. "Weren't you complaining about being so tired?"

"Yes, but the fight got me all energetic now!"

"Yeah! I don't feel like sleeping now either!"

"Not you too, Lloyd..."

"What? Don't you feel better after a fight, Genis?"

"Lloyd, magic users use a lot more mana than fighters, so we tire much more during the fights..."

"Whaddaya mean? I get tired sometimes, too!"

"...magic is a condensed form of mana. Magic users therefore take their own mana and mix it with the one found in the surrounding area to transform it into attack and support magic."

"Ye-yeah, um, like Presea said... you're always right, Pre-presea..."

"Ah, so that's why the Professor always gets a headache after the fights?"

"Yes, exactly that Colette. Just like now. So can we hurry onwards now? I'd like to get there before it gets much darker..."

"Yes, it'll get colder, too!"

Colette had barely said that when, a few steps later, she tripped. The group would've sighed and exclaimed something like 'What, again?' if it wasn't because they quickly noticed there was something different.

She hadn't tripped. She had _been_ tripped.

The thieves' leader, whom everyone had though to be knocked out if not dead, had taken a hold of the blonde girl's leg and, getting up, had taken hold of her, knife pointing to her throat.

"Now the tables turn!" the man exclaimed, and this time they took him a little more seriously, "Ok... hand the money now. The girl dies! Not kidding!"

"...we just killed most of your friends," started to sayRaine, slowly, "Don't you care at the least about that?"

"They weren't no friends! Juss associates! Money! Now!"

Lloyd was glaring at the man as if he was about to kill him, which he probably was. In fact, if it wasn't because there was a very pointy object near Colettes jugular the bandit would've been dead by now.

"No sudden moves! Brat, leave the kendama alone!"

"Calm down, now´... we're going to get the money, yes? Will five thousand be enough?" the group all half-glared at Raine, surprised. Was she going to negotiate over Colette's life?

They failed, however, to see that Sheena and Zelos had managed to signal each other and were now creeping behind the man, who was too busy yelling at the half-elf.

"Are ya kiddin'? Fifty big, or blondie here gets her clothes red!"

"You surely don't believe we carry that amount of money, do you?" Raine kept talking, very aware of her friend's moves Zelos was barely two feet away from the man – shee needed to keep him distracted. "We'll give you ten thousand, at most."

"Wha? You b-!" before the thief could finish his sentence he found his knife-hand jerked back and firmly held by the redheaded while the ninja punched him and got the blonde away from his grasp.

"Colette!" Lloyd cried.

"Tsk, tsk…" said Zelos, "You shouldn't be waving sharp objects like that!"

The man at first looked around, confused. And then, seeing he had been denied of his plan, with an agility that surprised Zelos he managed to turn around, set himself free and slash at the redheaded, opening a gash at his chest.

"Agh - HEY!" the Chosen cried in pain, quickly trying to control the bleeding with a hand, "I _liked_ this shirt!"

"..._Demonic Thrust_!" the man, however, didn't live enough to heard Zelos' shirt epitaph. "Zelos! Are you alright?"

"Yeah, yeah... just a flesh wound. Nothing my cool beauty can't heal."

"Heal yourself, Chosen. I have a headache."

"You didn't seem to be lacking mana during the fight, Zelos," Sheena playfully bonked the redhead's head, "Don't tire the healer."

"...ch, fine, fine..."

"...all wounds should be inspected for risk of infections and/or poisoning..."

"Aww, see? My little rosebud cares!"

"N-no she doesn't! She - she'd say so for anyone, right Presea?"

"But she's right, Zelos! You should check your wounds properly!"

"Aw, you don't have to worry about him, Colette. Remember, he's the type that just won't die."

"Ah, I feel so loved..." the Chosen muttered and, ignoring the fact that Colette kept making puppy-faces at him, gathered mana around himself. "_First Aid_! There, all new."

"Fine then. Let us get going before night settles in," Regal and Raine were both already ahead of the group and didn't even wait for an answer before turning around and starting to walk.

The sky was colored deep purple when the lights of Hima appeared in a hill not far from them. In the horizon the sun could still be seen, burning bright red and orange.

"Ah!" sighed Raine, "Finally, there's Hima."

"Mmmh, I'm happy we'll get to sleep in beds tonight!" Colette chirped happily, her brush with death all forgotten (well, she had had a lot of those anyway).

Lloyd stretched his arms behind his back. "Yeah! I'm so tired of sleeping in the open all the time..."

"And bathing in rivers..." Sheena pulled at her hair, trying to see whether it was greasy or not. "The water is cold and slimy and there are some _perverts_ to make it worse."

"Now, now! If you go around announcing you'll be taking your clothes off, you can't expect me not to... whoa!" Zelos stopped suddenly and leaned against the rock-wall for support. "What the... is it just me or did the earth trembled or something just now?"

The group stopped, looked at Zelos, looked at each other and shook their heads.

"So it's just me then. Er... uhm, why are you all so blurry?"

"...Zelos?"

He didn't register who it was who called his name because he was suddenly feeling very very nauseous. "Oh man... this isn..." he threw up and fainted.

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He opened his eyes and grunted. He then tried to move his arm and found it extremely heavy. His throat was dry and felt bloated, so talking was out of the question for at least a few seconds.

Where was he? Things were too damned blurry but he was aware of some sort of softness around him. He still felt like crap though.

"Zelos! You awake now?" a voice called from his side. He tried to move his head but when he did it felt as if the bed had tried to run away. "Don't move, the Professor said you still have some poison in you."

"...Lloyd?" whoa, was that his voice? He sounded terrible.

"Yeah. How are you feeling now?"

"Like crap. Water."

"Crap water?"

...Goddess, he sometimes hated that idiot. "Gimme water."

"Ah, yes..." a hand propped his head up and got a small plate to his lips. He drank the water and felt a little better – his throat cleared up and his sight got a little better. He wasn't feeling as heavy as before, too.

"Aaah... what the hell happened?"

"Seems the dagger was poisoned after all. Don't move, the Professor told me to call her if you woke up."

Before Zelos could say anything else (and man was he itching to complain) the red-clad boy got up from his chair and left the room. He was back a few moments later, followed by Raine and, he thought, Sheena, but his view was quickly obstructed by Raine standing next to him.

"So you're awake now? Mmmh..." the half-elven woman eyed him critically. "I cleaned most of the poison out, but since you closed your wound it complicated things..." she sighed, "I think we'll have to stay here for one or two days."

He didn't say anything. There wasn't much to say. He saw Raine place his staff over him and then the magic washed over his body, easing the pain and dizziness.

"Try to sleep a little," said the woman before leaving the room.

From the door he could hear another dialogue. "Are you sure?" said Lloyd's voice, "I don't mind staying awake tonight."

"Its fine," answered someone who sounded like Sheena, "It's late already and you've been watching him for three hours or so. I can take care of him, you go get some sleep."

"...thanks Sheena!" said Lloyd and the door closed.

So it _was_ Sheena then.

The woman walked to the bed-side and sat on the nearby chair. "You feeling better now?"

"...yeah. Kinda. Actually, I still feel like crap."

"You _look_ like crap, too."

"...was that necessary?"

"Perhaps not, but it's true. You kind of look like... a dead fish."

"Some kindness for the sick man, please?"

"Fine," she pretended to think, "If it makes you feel better, you don't look like a dead fish all of the time. Just every now and then."

"Ha-ha-ha."

"Aw, where's your sense of humor?"

"I left it with half my stomach," he shivered, "I'll just make myself believe you actually said 'Zelos, you look like crap right now but you usually look so gorgeously hot I can barely restrain myself.' "

Sheena snorted and grabbed the water plate that Lloyd had used before. "As if I would ever say something like that! You can't be that sick if you talk like that."

"...it's my only defense..." again his body shook slightly but he drank the water she offered him anyway. "What time is it?"

"Around three in the morning. You were out for like eight hours! Had us all worried sick, you stupid Chosen."

"I'm – I'm moved, hunny... is this Hi-hima? I d-don't really reme-mm-ber getting here..."

Slowly, the girl raised an eyebrow. "Are you alright? You're trembling."

"I'm... cold," he managed to say in between tremors, "C-can you get me a bl-blanket? Please?"

"...I don't think so. You're flushed." Sheena got up and yanked the covers off him. "We thought you might get a fever, so..." from the night-table she took a small crystal tube, "Raise your arm. Raise your arm I'm telling you! Oh, fine..." she got his arm and fixed the thermometer at his armpit. "Don't move you arm. I'll be back," and flew out of the room.

Zelos blinked and then shivered some more. Why the hell had she taken his blankets off when he had _asked_ for another? He realized now, too, that someone had taken his shirt off and bandaged his chest. Had the wound re-opened then?

Sheena came back after a few short minutes with two bowls in her hands and looked at the thermometer. "...Zelos?"

"Y-yes, hunny?"

"You're burning."

"I'm – I'm always that h-ho-"

"Don't joke, idiot! You have a fever," she set the two bowls on the table: one was filled with water. "And very high, too... _I call upon the disciple of everlasting ice. Celsius_!" the second bowl was filled with ice.

"T-talk about abusing Su-summon Spirits..."

"Shut up!" the girl grumbled, taking a few ice chunks and dropping them into the water, then dipping two handkerchiefs into the bowl as well.

"I – I though they used to treat fever with he-e-at in Mi-mizuho?

"Yes, but I learned this method at Meltokio, and I like it better," she shrugged and took one of the hankies, folded it in four and placed it upon the Chosen's forehead.

"Aaaaah, nooo! I-I want the Mizu-zuho meth-odd! Co-cold, take it offff!"

"Don't whine! Stay still, you idiot!"

"But i-its so c-co-colddd..."

"Zelos, you have almost forty degrees celsius. I need to get your fever down quickly," she explained and laid the second handkerchief on his stomach, making him squirm once more. "This is much faster than my village's method."

"B-but it's...!"

"Cold, yes, I know," the girl sighed and took a small chunk of ice in her fingers, "Honestly, you act like a kid," she placed the ice on his forehead and moved it over the cloth.

He didn't answer at first because he was too busy trying to control the goose-bumps that ran all over his body. "C-ca-an't you c-all R-ra-raine?"

"What for? Magic can't make fevers disappear."

"Aaa-aw-ww man..." he closed his eyes and sighed. The ice didn't feel that bad on his forehead, he though, or perhaps his skin was getting numb.

He felt her take the two hankies off and dip them into the water before placing the two on top of his skin again. And then he felt something that he wasn't expecting.

Again, ice against his skin. Only this time it was over his stomach and abdomen.

He yelped and shot his hips upwards at the surprise. "What the hell are you doing!" he cried.

Sheena glared at him. "I told you not to move! Ice works much better on the abdomen, so lie back!" she didn't wait though, and pushed him down and once more stroked his skin with the ice.

Zelos yelped again. "Cooooooold."

"Yeah, yeah, I know..."

"B-but, you know..." even with his teeth chattering, he smiled at her, "This - this'd be _so_ sexy if I wasn't ill!"

The girl's face turned crimson. "Wh-what?"

"Yeah! It d-doesn't feel bad at all, now that I think of it this way! G-get it a little lower, pass my bellybutton..."

"You – you! How dare you! I'm trying to get you better and yet...!"

"I'm ju-just being honest!"

Sheena glared at him and then sighed. "Zelos?"

"Yes, hu-hun-nny?"

"Do yourself a favor and shut up. You're trying too stupidly hard."

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"You're shivering and poisoned. You can relax and stop the jokes now."

"I-I never j-j-jok-ke about th-that..."

"Yeah right. Let me rephrase that. You _will_ relax and stop the jokes or I will make you stop them."

Instead of answering he shivered audibly and then sighed. In silence, Sheena took the wet clothes off and submerged them into the water, dried his skin, and then replaed the handkerchiefs.

She placed the ice against his forehead this time. "It's your own fault you're like this, you know."

"Uh?"

"You just had to say something witty instead of concentrating. Idiot."

"C-coooold…"

"Stop complaining already!" she slapped him lightly and turned to get some more ice when he reached up and, taking her hand, lead it back to his cheek.

"Aaaah..."

Her face again grew hot as she tried to break free. "Wh-what are you doing? Let me go!"

"But your hand's fresh and feels nice!" Zelos answered, not releasing.

"If – if you want fresh, I can give you some ice. Just... let go."

"D-don't want ice."

"...it'll do you better than my hand."

"B-but yours is s-softer."

At that moment Sheena wished she was more like Colette. The blonde would have smiled and thanked him for his words and thinkno more of it.She, however, only managed to stay still for a few seconds,saying nothingand thinking too much,before finally yanking her hand away.

"I need to change the cloth again," she muttered as an excuse. The Chosen, however, didn't answer. His breathing was becoming even, his shivers were stopping and he was starting to look a little sleepy.

"Are you feeling better?" she asked him.

"...yeah. The room ain't spinning any more."

"Good. Maybe you'll remember not to get so cocky when handling a moron with a knife."

Zelos chuckled lightly. "You're angry. I'm moved."

"My being angry is hardly a reason to be moved."

"But it is...! You're angry 'cause you're jealous."

"...of you?"

"Are you?"

She changed the cloths and once more put some ice on his belly. He quivered a little.

"I'm not into getting poisoned for my own stupidity."

"Thought as much. No, no... you're jealous of Colette."

"Now that's stupid."

"You're jealous I got hurt protecting her and not you."

"...I don't particularly care about –"

"But don't worry, Sheena," he took her hand again and smiled goofily, "I promise to get hurt for you one day."

"...thanks. But I'd like it better if you didn't throw up on me again."

"...I'll... keep that in mind."

A few minutes later his eyes closed and his chest started moving up and down evenly. He was asleep.

Carefully Sheena removed the wet handkerchiefs and dried his skin, allowing her hands to linger on his face – just to check whether he was still feverish, she told herself. But it was all gone.

In silence she covered him with the blanket she had discarded before and sat at the chair by his side. When Raine came to check a few hours later she found the ninja had literally fallen asleep from the chair and onto the Chosen's bed.

Nice nurse, she thought, falling asleep on top of her patient. But she didn't say anything. After all, Zelos, who was half-awake by then, didn't look to be unhappy at all.

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**Notes:** Whoa, a five pages-long introduction just to get them in a room with some ice. Regarding that – I'm betting that, when it comes to getting fevers under control, Sheena would use the Japanese method: lots of blankets, keep the patient _very_ warm and make him sweat the fever off. However I decided to go with a "method" my mother always used on my family... ice. I don't know if its effective, but its supposedly faster then the blankets, but it can be a little cruel because of the cold... hey, at least Sheena didn't shove Zelos into a bathtub with 60 percent ice. Mom did that once and it was horrible.

Er, yeah. cough Ignore the rant.

I had fun writing this one. I had originally planned for Zelos to get hurt saving/protecting Sheena, but that didn't strike me as correct, and so he saved Colette and got a chance to annoy Sheena by telling her she was jealous.

Regarding last chapter – reviewer Tamerlane kindly sent me a link with the Proof (thanks!), and guess what – it does say that Zelos and Sheena have a "former lover" relationship. It's really hard to read and it doesn't say anything else though... just something like "He's got a former lover relationship with Sheena because he likes girls with nice body". That's it. Would've been nice if they had explained something during the game – a skit or two, you know?

Anyway, thanks so much for reading to StrawberryEggs, Eliannora, DarkNite109, Urby, AmaDono, Suzu Fujibayashi, Tamerlane, The Zelda Master, lugiamania, TUF STUFF, MindTricks and Selkie. I hope you'll enjoy the next one as well!

_WDR_

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Coming Next

_#5 – Together_

_(so yeah, fluff's coming your way, at some degree or other)_


	5. Normal 5 Together ¨¨Issho ni¨¨

**Disclaimer:** All appearing characters and places belong to Namco unless otherwise specified.

The O-dai themes belong to the Zeroshii-Wa, at http/deburu98249.jog. but written correctly. If you visit, don't steal!

**Setting:** After the game

**Warnings:** Fluff! Might feel OOC.

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Normal Version,

**#5 – Together**

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* * *

"Well, well! Isn't this a coincidence?"

She turned around; eyes open wide, and met with a sight she hadn't been expecting.

Red hair. Pink vest. Long gloves and white pants. Zelos Wilder was grinning broadly at her.

"...what the hell are you doing here, Zelos?"

He grimaced. "What kind of greeting is that, Sheena? Really, people might think you aren't _happy_ to see me!"

"And they'll be right!"

"Oh, so cold, so cold!" he dramatically brushed his hair back, "You break my heart, hunny. Being so far from home, a man's bound to get homesick! Do you know how much good it'd do to my heart to hold a fellow citizen close to my chest?"

"Try it and you're dead! You perverted Chosen!"

Zelos, as always, had been joking, so he crossed his arms and once more smiled. "So! What 'cha doing here covered in dust, my demonic banshee?"

Sheena bit her lip for a second and sighed, as if resigning herself to some unbearable task. Thing was, she _was_ covered in ashes, since she had just finished a surprise raid in the Palmacosta docks to capture a band of smugglers. So she explained

"Unlike some others, I'm here to work, not on vacation."

"Heeeey! I'm here on business, too," Zelos did his oh-you-hurt-me face, "And I can bet _my_ job won't be half as fun as yours, because any task that means getting covered in ashes is better than what awaits me tomorrow."

"Tomorrow...?" she raised an eyebrow, "You mean you're attending the Mutual Growth Chamber?"

He nodded solemnly, "Yep. I'm to represent the royal family of Tethe'alla during the peace talks."

"Well, ain't that an honor."

"One I'd rather go without!" the redheaded exclaimed, "I'll be sitting inside a room with lots of old men arguing stuff I don't really get while I could be cruising the new Palmacosta Seaside Inn..." he sighed, "It's a complot to keep me away from my hunnies, I swear."

"Don't you worry; I'll get Mizuho to investigate it."

"Really? You'd do that for me?"

"No, I just want in. Really, Zelos! Here you have a chance to make a difference and help Sylvarant and Tethe'alla grow together, and you're thinking about women!"

"Yeah, yeah, but even more important than that is that you should just tell me you don't want me to see other women!" she glared at him but still the Chosen batted his eyelashes flirtatiously, "You know I'd leave them all for you, my sweet, special hun-"

"D-don't you call me that! And you're free to see as many girls as you want, you... freak!"

She turned around and marched to her hotel room. He, of course, tried to follow her, which lead to much yelling fro her and laughing from him, and people looking at them and wondering if they were really fighting or not.

At the end she managed to escape, but not without him yelling first that "I'll see you at the beach later, Sheena!"

"As if I would even get close, knowing you're there!"

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"A-hah! I knew it! The Goddess must really want us to be together, hunny, for us to meet so again!"

"Sh-shut up! My room was just too hot, it's not as if I came to see you!" and it was true, at least to some point. Her room had been too hot for her to endure – Sylvarantian summer was much hotter than anything she had ever experienced in Tethe'alla.

So, after taking a well-deserved shower and washing off all the ashes, she had opened the window in hopes it would cool the room. It was then she noticed that she had a sea-side view window, because she had just started drying her hair when in came the smell of salt sea, the cry of seagulls and the sound of laughter.

She had changed into a light shirt, brushed her hair and walked to the window to try and relax for a while.

And she had discovered that the laughter came from him, or to be more exact, was being caused by him. Even though there were plenty of swimsuit-clad girls in the beach, he was instead playing with four of five kids, chasing them and being overall silly. The kids, who looked no older than four or five years, laughed and squealed in delight whenever the 'ogre' (as they were calling him) took a hold of one of them and spun them around before letting them go, exclaiming something like 'Agh, you've escaped, you slippery brat!'.

It was such a childish, almost ridiculous scene that she had to laugh. Ridiculous, yet awkwardly inviting. And the room had been still too hot anyway, so she had decided to go and take a walk in the beach.

She had found him lying on the sand, hair caked with sand and his vest in hands of the kids. It was in that position that he greeted her –

"A-hah! I knew it! The Goddess must really want us to be together, hunny, for us to meet so again!"

"Sh-shut up! My room was just too hot, it's not as if I came to see you!" and it wasn't that true, but it'd had to do. He stared up at her and she continued, "I think the kids have your vest."

"I know," he sat up and tried to brush the sand off his hair, "Those little... bah, let them be. It was too hot for it anyway..." so saying he proceeded to take his long gloves off along with his boots.

"I never thought you'd like children," she sat next to him (but leaving enough space in between, of course).

"But I do! Always play tag and hide-n-seek with them in Meltokio... kids are more honest than their parents..." the last sentence was mumbled, but she still heard it. She decided not to say anything though – it just seemed the right to do.

Zelos stretched his arms luxuriously over his head and lay down again. "Man, it's too hot. I don't feel like doing anything."

"Not even chasing your vest?"

"What's with you and my vest? And no, they can keep it for all I care. Have like three of those," he turned his head to her, "Do you want my vest?"

"What would I want it for?"

"You could wear it! I bet you'd look sexy in it... ouch!" he rubbed his arm where she had punched him, "Ooow, Sheeeeena... y'know, when a girl hits a guy 'cause she likes him, she's supposed to hit him ligh- OW!"

"You just don't know when to shut up, don't you?"

"Heh, it's just funnier this way. Even if bruises my beautiful skin."

"...Zelos? I think the kids are washing you vest in the sea."

The Chosen lifted his head lazily, just enough to get a view of the sea line. Grunting like an old man he sat up again. "How can they have so much energy? I chased them for like half an hour and they're still at it."

"They're kids. They're supposed to be like that."

Zelos sighed. "Alright. They're uh, insulting my vest's honor, and therefore mine."

"...what?"

"Get up, my hunny!" in a jump he was up and so wa she, since he had taken her forearm along. "We must avenge the stain that has been pressed onto my honor. Or onto my clothes."

"What the hell are you even talking about? Didn't you just say that they could keep it for all you cared?"

"Yeah, well," he grinned and took hold of her other arm, "I'm actually looking for an excuse to drag you into the sea."

"...what? Ooooh no you don't! Let go! Zelos, let me go! You'll be sorry if I even touch the water!" she pulled back and he dragged her forward, and his grip slipped – intentionally, perhaps? – 'till he wasn't holding her arms but her hands, and there he tightened and didn't let go.

"Aw, c'mon! You're at the beach, you can't not get into the sea!" he whined, still pulling her towards the water.

"I – I'm not even wearing a swimsuit!"

"Neither am I! C'moooon!"

"N-no! You – you idiot! Let me go!" and so she kept complaining but was very disappointed to find herself laughing; struggling only as a joke and giggling like a teen when her feet were finally touched by the sea-waves.

"It's cold!" Sheena exclaimed, half laughing and still trying to sound as if she was complaining.

"Weren't you complaining about how hot it was?"

"That was you, idiot!"

He still had her hands in his. But something inside her didn't want to pay mind to it. Something inside her was fine with it.

"It's the ogre!" a very very young voice yelled from behind and he let go of her and turned.

"That's right, punk!" Zelos yelled over-dramatically, "I've come for revenge, and brought an ally with me!"

Three boys and one girl (the last one holding a dripping pink vest) stared at the Chosen in curiosity. Zelos shoved her forward.

"She's the Violent Demonic Banshee! Now you shall have no escape!"

The kids set off running in a flurry of high-pitched screams, and Zelos went after them. For a few moments she just stood there, not sure of what to do. Then the girl went running past her and she dived for it.

"I'll catch you, you little thief!"

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Zelos' vest was stiff with salt once it had dried. He laughed and tried shaking it just to see whether it'd make a good club or not.

"I'm so sorry!" the children mother had apologized like mad, "I had to check something at the hotel and I didn't think they'd cause trouble..."

"Don't worry, m'am, we had fun as well," she had had to assure the woman that they weren't angry and that they didn't need her to pay for the vest.

Sheena sighed and sat once more next to the Chosen, who had finally dropped the new pink weapon onto the sand.

"Aaah... I had just bathed and now I'm all covered in salt... even my hair feels salty," she complained, feeling her tresses. It felt just as stiff as Zelos' jacket.

"Don't worry, we can always take another bath."

"_I_ can take another bath, you mean."

"But I can wash your baAUGH, you just had to hit the bruise, did you?"

"Yes, that was the idea. Pervert! I can't believe I wasted my afternoon off with you..."

"And the kids? Are those a waste too?"

"No, _they_ were very sweet."

"You want me to be sweet?"

"Ew, no," so she said but she didn't complain when he cocked his head to look at the sky and some of his red curls fell onto her shoulder. The two stayed silent, looking at the sun setting over the sea, shining red over black and painting the clouds pink and orange.

"It was fun, today, wasn't it?" he asked, not turning her head but his eyes still searching hers.

"...yeah. It went by so fast," she sighed, "I'm so tired!" and let herself fall onto the sand.

"I didn't really visit this town much before it was destructed. But it's nice now."

"Yes. Neil has done a great work reconstructing everything..."

"And it makes for a good resort. Not as crowded as Altamira."

"_That's_ a relief. I can't stand crowds."

He didn't answer. The sky was slowly turning black over their heads.

"Hey, let's come back here someday! Before it turns famous and we can't play around like today," he smiled playfully,"But no kids, just us, together."

"Don't make it sound as if we're married or something, stupid Chosen ..." she bonked his head softly.

"...you haven't answered though?"

"...I didn't hear myself say 'no'."

He raised an eyebrow, laughed softly and seemed about to say something before deciding not to ruin the moment with a bad joke. Instead he, too, lay down on the sand, next to her, and in silence they gazed at the stars that were slowly starting to appear on the night sky.

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**Notes:** This was brought to you by the Palmacosta new Seaside Inn Resort, built by the Palmacosta Reconstruction Fund: Because We Got No Heroes To Pay A Bazillion Gald, Unlike Luin, Those Idiots.

O.M.G. teh fluff! This one was so damnedly hard to write, 'cause I was so busy and I just... well, let us say there's another version of this O-dai, which I decided not to post because of it being drama-fluff-tastic. Anyway, I kinda like this one. Kinda. Or not. Well, all the kids in Meltokio are like 'Play with us, Chosen!', so he must play with them every now and then, and Sheena liked to play with the kids in Luin, so... there!

I want to change the title of the fic. 'Seeds' was chosen because... uh... each of these could be written into bigger things (which I invite everyone to do if they suddenly wished:-P), but I'm not happy with it. Anyone has an idea or should I dust off my thesaurus and search for a synonym for 'Anthology'?

It seems I get fewer reviews on weekend-updates, which is fine because then I can answer.

**StrawberryEggs**; thank you for nitpicking, heh. I do have a tendency to 'invent compound nouns', in the words of my English professor..., **DarkNite109**; Yeah, sexy ice action! XD Now, if this were labeled M...,

**Urby**; yes, it was #4, but I was prolly distracted by... a bird, or a bright piece of paper, heheheh... ah, hehe? And I don't know how sweating a fever off works, I always got the ice O.O, **TUF STUF**; Ice seems to work on me, heh. I've never sweated off a fever, I was even told it was dangerous OO but what do I know,

**The Zelda Master**; Yeah, I guess its unorthodox, I actually kept wondering whether to keep the ice or not because it just seemed too out of the blue...but my muse wouldn't hear any of it, **Tamerlane**; argh, you discovered my ploy to...eeer, lets say Raine healed him but is cautious and didn't want him to, I dunno, scratch at the scar or something, so she bandaged him. Yeah... that's it.,

**lugiamania**; we all want those cards! Shame it seems they're like, collectors edition Japanese merchandise... Sighness, for they get all the cool stuff in Japan.

That's all for this week! Because I'm damnedly busy with final essays! See you next time, with –

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_#6 – Invitation_

(whoa, number six already? I'm either dedicated or obsessive. Ideas are welcome.)

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	6. Normal 6 Invitation ¨¨Sasoi¨¨

**Disclaimer:** All appearing characters and places belong to Namco unless otherwise specified.

The O-dai themes belong to the Zeroshii-Wa, at http/deburu98249.jog. but written correctly. If you visit, don't steal!

**Setting:** A few _years_ after the game, so beware of some maturity in the chars!

**Warnings:** As always, Zelos. Just he alone is worth the rating. Fluff-tastic! Some angst. Flufsty? Angfly?

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Normal Version,

**#6 – Invitation**

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She felt herself boiling with rage, and the messenger must have been able to see it because he suddenly started moving his eyes from side to side, as a mouse searching for a safe hiding place.

"...thank you for your time," she managed to say without sounding _too_ frustrated.

"Er... ah, he said he was extremely sorry..."

"Yes, I know."

"And that he'd make it up for –"

"_Yes_, I know! That's what the flowers are for, right? Tell him it's fine and that I'm not angry and that... I'll write him later. Yes?"

The young ninja nodded dumbly, wondering why she wanted him to say that she wasn't angry while she was obviously irate. But he wasn't dumb enough, so he bowed and left the room quickly.

Left alone Sheena sighed and sat down by her table, where a luxurious basket of flowers had been placed. Beautiful orchids were combined with fragrant gladiolas, a few pale-pink roses had been arranged here and there to make things livelier.

It was lovely. The sweet smell of the flowers filled the room.

Which was rather depressing, because right now she wasn't supposed to be alone; she was supposed to be with him. In his arms, perhaps. The fragrance only reminded her of him – because it wasn't what _he_ smelled like, because the flowers were there only because he wasn't.

"Stupid Zelos," she grumbled. It wasn't supposed to be like this – the boy wasn't supposed to make the girl wait, that was the girl's job. But lately Zelos had become so busy with changing the Church of Martel that they just... hadn't been able to meet at all. Even when they managed to make an 'appointment' with each other Zelos sometimes ended up unable to attend because some nobles wanted to talk with him or because he had to deal with one or two crazy priests...

Softly playing with one of the orchids Sheena didn't feel angry anymore, just a little lonely. She had nothing to do for the next hours because she had planned on spending them with him, and now that she was alone... it was just not worth it to be angry anyway. When it came to long-term relationships Zelos was as able as a fourteen year old boy, so she would have to be the mature one...

Sighing a little once more she took an envelope that was lying on top of the table and placed it in a small drawer under the table before taking a stack of papers and placing it in front of her.

After going through a few papers, however, she seemed to change her mind and took a blank sheet, wrote a few quick lines on it and, from the envelope she had placed in the drawer, took a smaller slice of paper and placed it next to her letter.

"Take this to the Chosen," she instructed the messenger from before, "In person. You are not to leave until he gives you an answer. Understand?"

The boy nodded, bowed quickly and left. Sheena huffed and went down to her papers.

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He saw her arrive dressed, as usual in her, in traditional-yet-not-so Mizuho clothes, only much warmer than her usual outfit. She hadn't seen him yet so he raised an arm and called, waving his hand around.

"Sheeeenaaa!"

She smiled at him, and as she got closer he noticed her cheeks were flushed with the cold.

"Did you come by Rheaird?"

"Yes... it was so cold up there!"

"Of course it'd be! Its winter, you know?" Zelos Wilder sighed and his breath formed a small cloud in front of him.

Not a week ago he had been unable to go visit her when they had agreed to, and in turn a few hours later he had received a messenger from Mizuho who said not to worry, Sheena wasn't upset, she sent this letter.

The letter had read

_You stupid stupid Chosen!_

_If you can't visit, why do you even say you will?_

_I send a ticket to the inauguration of the Flanoir Snow Festival. You'd better be at the gate before it starts if you know what's good for you!_

No signature.

Right, so she wasn't upset? Well, it's not as if she didn't have a reason to.

And the messenger said he wouldn't leave until he answered. So much to his chagrin Zelos had to say that yes, he'd be there... and there he was, dressed in an expensive black coat lined with fur and a pink scarf threatening to cover his lovely face.

Sheena was dressed in dark purple, and around her neck and over her chest and back he wore a coffee-colored fur mantle. It had been a while since the two of them had to dress up, but the Flanoir Snow Festival was important in high-society.

So he offered her his arm and, after half-glaring at him, she took it (as it was expected in such a situation) and they started walking, surrounded by a great lot of people, into the city.

"This is the first time I've been to the Snow Festival!" she exclaimed, smiling, "I've always wanted to see the statues."

"What's so special about them? There were a few back when we came with Lloyd."

"But only a few. And they weren't very impressive, and it was summer."

"I like summers better!" the Chosen whined, "Flanoir is just too cold during the winter."

Funny, really, how he had no problems with snow during the summer, but once winter hit... it was as if his body had a built-in yearly clock scheduled for depression.

That's why he hadn't wanted to come. Meltokio wasn't expecting any snow that year. Altamira would have none, of course. He had even though of perhaps visiting Triet, and take _her_ along of course... but she had been faster and invited him here. And he couldn't refuse.

"Chosen!" a high-pitched voice called from the side and the two turned.

"I'm _so_ glad to see you here!" exclaimed an old woman too full of makeup. "You are always so busy during the winters!"

In spite of himself, Zelos smiled. "Well, you've got to thank her then," he motioned at Sheena with his head, "She's the one that got me here."

The woman turned to the ninja. "Oh, you _must_ be the famous Sheena Fujihabashi!"

"Fujibayashi."

"Yes, that. Thank you _so_ much for actually bringing the Chosen here... would you believe that _every year_ he refuses my invitations...?"

"Oooh, really? That is _so_ rude of you, Zelos!"

The Chosen had to turn to look at the girl. It was a little creepy to hear her talking like that.

"Well, I can't help it if my obligations kept me so far from Flanoir... and, hunny, remember that reservation at the hotel? I think we need to go check in?"

"Oh yes, _indeed_!" there she was again, emphasizing random words. "I'm _so_ sorry, ma'am, but we really _do_ need to go now!"

"Oh, don't _you_ worry! Be sure to call me if you _ever_ need anything!"

"Who was she?" asked Sheena once they had left her behind.

"Old woman from Meltokio with too much free time," he answered, hurrying along and hoping no one else would recognize him.

"Did you really refuse every invitation?"

"Yep! I usually visit Altamira during the winter," he grinned. "And don't worry about the hotel thing. We do have a reservation, but there's no need to go there right now... unless you're feeling –"

"Don't say it you..." instead of continuing she hit him not-so-lightly, "I bet you only got one room, too!"

"Yes, of course! Flanoir's winter is too cold babe, I was hoping you'd warm my bed a little," she hit him again.

"...pervert."

He smiled anyway. "Anyway, let's go see those statues you're so crazy about."

As they walked a feeling Zelos recognized started to take over him. It was as if everything around him was blurry, as if the entire world wanted to close onto him. Tunnel vision, he had heard it was called.

"Look at that!" Sheena cried, pointing at what looked to be a very large sculpture of a tree. "They even sculpted birds on the branches... is that an owl?"

"...seems so," he answered, though he didn't really bother to look at, "They sure have patience."

"You would've given up at the trunk."

He forced himself to laugh. "I give up at the first ball of a snow-man, hunny."

"Really? I never made one when I was little. My first snowman was when we came here, with Colette..."

"Mmmh?"

She didn't add anything else, instead dragging him towards the next snow sculpture, a depicting of a pair of horses at full gallop. She said something, he just squeezed her hand.

"Isn't it wonderful?" she asked at the feet of a snow-palace.

"Wouldn't want to live there," he answered and rubbed his eyes.

"Look at that one!" she almost dragged him to the next one, "It's a mermaid. It's beautiful! I think I like this one best so far."

"How can you run with those heels?" he heard himself asking through the haze that was his mind.

"What does that have to do with anything?" the girl looked at the statue again, "It's as if it was at the middle of a sea of snow."

"...wouldn't want to go there... and there are better-done pieces..." he muttered.

The girl eyed him a little strangely.

His brain felt so far away now, it seemed to him that he was suddenly looking at his life from outside – as if he was just one more character, unable to go against the narrator.

What was he doing? Where was he? Suddenly it all was so insignificant, so absurd. He felt tiny, small in comparison with everything.

"...a lion," said Sheena after they had walked a few minutes in silence, "Isn't it weird to see a lion made of snow?"

He didn't answer at first. Sheena's voice had pulled him down again, which he was thankful for, even if his mind was still trying to go away. So he felt compelled to say something...

"Well, there are white tigers, right?" ...even if it came out as stupid at that.

But if he went and just said 'I'm thankful for your tugging at my sleeve like a little kid' he'd sound much worse.

It was obvious by now though that Sheena had noticed something was wrong. She kept glaring his way every now and then and almost completely stopped commenting on the statues she liked. He first tried to think of something funny to say, then of _something_ to say, then he tried to think, period, but his mind had slowed down too much and Sheena was walking a few steps ahead...

...which were too many.

"Wow..." he managed to hear her exclaim in a low voice and he tried to focus on whatever she was watching.

Reality rushed back at him.

The statue in front of them was probably one of the show's main events – the quality of the sculpting was far above any other he had seen and it was illuminated by a pair of lamps that shone upon it in crystalline white and carmine red bars.

The state represented a woman sitting on a chair, looking up at the sky with an expression which he believed was longing, as if falling down a hand was almost resting on her lap, the other was still up in the air.

She had given up, he thought. She was encased by bars of blood-red light and she had given up calling and trying to escape and that's why her hands were falling to her sides.

"I'm... not feeling very well," Zelos said softly, a hand going to his head. "I'll go on to the hotel. You just... stay here and enjoy yourself."

He didn't wait for her to answer: he was suddenly feeling so very, very tired, and so very, very empty; which was worse than feeling sad.

Without really noticing the changes in the scenery around him he walked to the inn, looking at his feet following each other over the snow. He picked his key at the counter; he went up the stair, searched his room and left his gloves, coat and scarf over a little table before dropping down onto the bed and staring at the wall and whatever was beyond it.

He wasn't sure how much later it was – but not so much, he guessed – when the door opened again and someone stepped inside. By the sound of her footsteps he knew it was Sheena, but then again who else would it be?

"Aren't you going to go to the inauguration speech?" she asked, walking across the room and into the little bathroom. Her tones were icy.

He didn't answer.

"Honestly, Zelos! We come all the way here and you bury yourself in the room!"

He still didn't answer. Perhaps he wasn't listening at all.

No, he was. But he no words came to him.

"...Zelos?" she asked, her voice sounding a little warmer than before. The mattress shifted and he felt her arms going under his, hugging to his chest. "Are you really not feeling well?"

He shook his head.

"And I was thinking you were just being a big baby."

"...hey!"

"Starting to wake up?"

He shrugged.

"So? Are you really not feeling well or are you just in a bad mood or something?"

"...both?"

"Why do you ask me!"

"Well, I can't help it!" he half-whined, "I... well, you know how my mother died, right?"

She didn't answer, but it was fairly obvious she knew. She was a ninja from Mizuho – they had the best information web in the entire world. And what the newspapers used to call the 'Meltokio Winter Tragedy' was too famous an incident for her not to know.

"I tend to get a little depressed at this time of the year..." so he continued, "It's kinda... biological now, I think. I got a headache, even."

"...I'm sorry. I didn't think you'd feel like this when I invited you."

"You had no way of knowing, and you wanted to come, right?" he took one of her hands and lightly squeezed it before letting go. "So don't worry, I'll just... take a nap, and you go and have a good time."

He didn't wait long for an answer. "...you idiot!"

"What!"

"What what! Isn't it obvious?"

"No it's not! I'm telling you to go enjoy yourself and you insult me? Aah, I'm so unloved at times..."

"Cut the drama!" she patted one of his arms, "Did you think I invited you to see the snow?"

"...yes? I mean, that was the idea. To see the snow sculptures?"

"No! I... I missed you, fine?" he could tell she was blushing by the way she burrowed her face into his back, "Invitations are for people to meet. Forget about the festival and all that... if it makes you feel bad then we can stay inside, I don't particularly care. I invited you to see you."

He took her hands into his and squeezed them tightly.

She was the only one who could make him _feel_ when his barriers fell down.

"...can we take a nap then?"

"Now you're being a baby..."

"Awww, c'moooon!"

"Only a little! If you sleep too much now you won't feel sleepy at night."

"And why's that bad?"

"Because I have to share the bed with you!"

"...and how is that bad?"

"...just sleep already, idiot."

He laughed a little while turning around to hug her. As he had predicted she was blushing red – not unlike her face earlier on, flushed by the cold.

Only this time he knew she wasn't feeling cold, because he sure as hell wasn't.

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**Notes:** Exams and essays ate my life alive even though it cried for its life. But now I'm a little more free.

I have mixed feelings about this O-dai so I won't comment much. I just hope the characters came across as a little more mature than in the game without being too dramatically different... er... well, I think I got it right at some points and wrong at some others.

I've changed the title, too! It was going to be "Memento" but there are like three other fics called "Moments" and "Memories" and its too similar, so I went with "treasure" because of my karate prof. used to say, which is the quote in the summary.

Thanks to all the wonderful wonderful reviewers! I promise I'll try to answer with the new OMG reply system from now on. Depending on how busy I am I may or may not be able to answer to everyone, but I'll try!

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed,

_WDR_

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_#7 – Wish_

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	7. Normal 7 Wish ¨¨Negai¨¨

**Disclaimer:** All appearing characters and places belong to Namco unless otherwise specified.

The O-dai themes belong to the Zeroshii-Wa, at http/deburu98249.jog. but written correctly. If you visit, don't steal!

**Setting:** In-Game, immediately after the Otherwordly Gate. Arr, mates, Spoilers ahoy! Spoilers!

**Warnings:** Zelos thinking a lot and using his hormones for said goal. Feel-good ending.

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Normal Version,

**#7 – Wish**

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"Explain yourself."

Zelos swallowed. The pale blonde-haired 'boy' was sitting atop a bed, legs hanging down the mattress. An image that should've been the epitome of innocence, really, but instead it was making him so very anxious.

This was no normal boy sitting on a bed. This was Lord Yggdrasil making the bed a throne, once more asserting his superiority over him, who had a knee bended and didn't really dare to look up.

The 'boy' was glaring at him, he could feel it. And that was never a good thing, but now that he had absolutely no idea what he was talking about it was even worse.

But he absolutely hated allowing the brat (even if he was thousands of years old) feeling superior, so he answered, "Wha, did I do anything wrong? If you're talking about that pass I made at the professor then -"

"Your behavior at the Otherwordly Gate, Chosen!" the boy snapped and Zelos regretted his words a little.

But – the Otherwordly Gate? "...what with that?"

His 'boss' (one of them, at least) looked at him in annoyance. "You do realize that by saving the summoner you have complicated things for me, don't you?" he shook his head as if Zelos was a dumb pet, "Had she died, this... group would've lost the ability to call onto the power of the Summon Spirits, thus ending their so-called quest."

He didn't answer: he knew Yggdrasil had more to say. But even if he had been ordered to answer he wouldn't have been able to. Was he being scolded for saving someone? Well, he hadn't been ordered to save anyone but he hadn't been ordered _not_ to save anyone in obvious danger...

...but he'd better concentrate. Yggdrasil was still speaking and he had already lost part of the conversation.

"...an annoyance I would've been better off without. So explain yourself."

"Er..." damn, had he said anything important? "Don't see what's to explain, Lord Yggdrasil. I just acted. Er..." quickly, an excuse! "Besides, don't you think saving her got me some brownie points with them? Bet they trust me much more now."

The boy smirked in a way that was altogether too creepy. "Already they trust _me_ much more than they'll ever trust you."

...ouch. Zelos grimaced inwardly.

"Well, no use in wasting any more time talking about this," Yddgrasil continued, "I would've thought you'd be glad to have one less to kill..." Zelos felt himself going pale at the Lord's voice, and it seemed he too could notice the Chosen's shock. "Why so pale, Chosen? You know I'll ask that of you one day. Are you perhaps having doubts about our deal?"

"...o-of course not! Anything to get that title off my head."

"...and yet it can't be helped: I feel anxious. Can you think of a reason?"

The redheaded tried not to sigh. He _needed_ Yggdrasil's trust if he was ever going to be freed from his title. "Not really, Lord Yggdrasil."

"I know all of your habits, Chosen – thanks to your title you've been kept you under vigilance for all of your life."

"...I know."

"Your liking of the fair sex is famous. But if you want this deal to work out, perhaps your should try not to mix your feelings with your -"

"Wait wait wait there, time out," he interrupted, "You're saying I saved her because -?"

"I don't believe I gave you permission to cut me off so abruptly, Chosen," the boy said icily, a pair of purple wing-like shadows appearing at his back for an instant. Zelos shut up immediately, feeling a chill running down his back, but he didn't apologize – he didn't want to give the boy that pleasure.

"...I don't care what views you may hold," Yggdrasil continued after a few seconds of cold silence, "Consider yourself warned, Chosen. Don't screw up again."

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Zelos walked down the streets of Palmacosta in silence, glaring at most things and grinning at the passing girls out of custom.

Back when he was younger, at the Meltokio Academy, he had a friend. Once (Zelos could even almost hear his voice, he remembered so well) that boy had said something that had sounded funny, even stupid at the time:

"Say there's this girl – she's a good friend, but you've never even _thought_ of her as a prospective special-someone. I mean, perhaps you've noticed she's got nice boobs, but even then she's just a friend and nothing else. And then someone comes along and tells you 'You like her, don't you?' or perhaps they say 'She likes you, you know', and then you're screwed because you suddenly discover you're in love."

Right now Zelos Wilder was in the act of discovering how much truth his friend's words had held.

"Damn damn damn damn that stupid overpowered brat!"

From the Chosen's point of view, it was all Yggdrasil's fault. Because of him he was the Chosen, because of him he had been forced to join Lloyd's group, because of him he had ended in the declining Sylvarant and because of him he couldn't get _that_ girl off his mind.

"Thinks he's so much better just 'cause he's four thousand years old..."

He tried to keep insulting the boy because that kept his mind busy. As his rage grew thin he tried to think of what a boring city Palmacosta was, and then about how he really needed to wash his hair and then about what a bad idea it had been to bring a silk shirt to this trip.

But it was all forced, because there she was, at the corner of his mind eye, stalking his thoughts, with her cat-like eyes and her unruly black hair.

It was getting dark but he didn't want to go back to the small inn they had chosen for their stay. If he went back he would end up running into her and that was the last thing he needed right now.

"Fine then," he sat on a wooden box near the docks past the small cathedral, "I'll just have to concentrate on not thinking about..."

_...Sheena..._

"Oh..." Zelos slapped his forehead.

_...Sheena..._

"Good work, _now_ she wont leave my mind..."

_...Sheena..._

"...I feel like an idiot," he grumbled before adding, "Stupid overpowered brat, everything's his fault."

Fine, so he had saved her. That didn't mean anything, he said in his mind as if to convince himself: it had been the human thing to do. And besides, she was a friend – friends don't let friends die, right? Lloyd would've done the same and he didn't love Sheena.

"...and if he did?"

The Chosen suddenly found himself feeling inexplicably territorial over the black-haired ninja. It seemed to him as if she sometimes smiled way too kindly at the red-clad swordsman, but up until now he hadn't really realized how much that bothered him.

"...damn," she could be talking with Lloyd right now while he was wasting his time sitting like an idiot. But if he interrupted them she wouldn't forgive him...

What was she doing right now, he wondered?

"As long as she ain't talking with Lloyd I'm fine with it."

Lloyd was talking with Colette and that Neil guy, he remembered, so Sheena was probably with Raine at the inn. That cheered him up a little. Perhaps she was thinking of him – perhaps she had finally realized that his dragging her down t he Otherwordly gate hadn't been a bad thing, and that one thought felt like warm bubbles around his chest.

A few seconds afterwards he realized that it had been a _long_ time since he had last felt warm bubbles and decided that perhaps it was time to re-evaluate his relationship with the summoner.

Which was something rather hard for him to do:

In Zelos Wilder's opinion there were only two kinds of love:

The first one was to be _in_ love, which meant to be a complete idiot who smiled way too much and sighed all day long. He hadn't felt like that since he was fifteen thought and he certainly wasn't feeling like that now.

The second was the way he loved Seles and his late mother – so much it hurt, so much he wouldn't mind dying for their happiness, so much it was sad because they hated him anyway. And he didn't want to feel like that about Sheena.

And then there was sex, but that wasn't love, right? Well, he wouldn't mind giving it a go with her...

But even if she allowed him (he snorted at the thought) that idea didn't feel right either.

So what he was feeling wasn't friendship but it wasn't love either and it wasn't only lust: it was confusing, that alone he was sure of. Was there any term for 'more than friends but not lovers'?

All he could think of was 'hunny' but she'd kick him if she heard that. And she wasn't like his usual girls anyway.

With a small sigh he got up from the crate and stretched his arms behind his back. The sun had finished its everyday travel a few minutes ago and was now completely hidden under the ocean-line. As much as it wouldn't do him much good to see Sheena right now he had to go back to the inn sooner or later, so he'd better do it in time for dinner, he guessed.

So he made his way back to the hotel, walking slowly and wishing he could stop feeling that way. He had many things to worry about, and what Yggdrasil had said was true: one day he would have to betray them all...

...and this wasn't making things easier.

There she was, at the small living room the inn had near its reception desk, talking with Raine and Regal just as he had imagined she would be. No escape now, and he knew only one method to hide any and all discomforts: loudness.

"Yoooooo, hunnies!"

"There you are. Where have you been all day?"

"Where else? Flirting with every single woman, I bet."

"Weeeeeeell, it can't be helped! Sylvarant girls have a different flavor, y'know?"

"What do you mean with 'flavor'? Pervert!"

"Wh- hey, you are the one who thought _that_ up!"

Raine smirked at the ninja's reddening face and Regal sighed a little shaking his head. Inwardly, Zelos whimpered a little – that girl wasn't making things any easier.

So after dinner he chose to call it a day and retire earlier than the rest.

'Mithos' glared at him before softening his expression and asking in his oh-I'm-so-inoccent voice, "Are you not feeling well, Zelos? You were zoning out during the dinner."

Damn the kid and his hidden threats, Zelos cursed. "I'm moved by your concern, kid, but nothing can faze the Great Zelos. I just need my beauty sleep."

Genis raised an eyebrow. "Even if you slept an entire week it wouldn't help you enough though," the two boys laughed.

"Ah, shut it brat..."

Next to the blonde chosen Sheena laughed as well. "Yes, leave him alone or he will actually stay, Genis."

...that kind of remarks didn't hurt half as much as they did now, he thought and flopped down onto the bed. To feel miserable was not an alien feeling to Zelos, but right now it was worst than it had been for a while.

He wished Yggdrasil would leave already. He wished he hadn't been born the Chosen, and that he could just let go and act a little more naturally. But then again his 'natural side' was used to acting like a jerk anyway.

He wished his mother was alive; perhaps he wouldn't be a jerk if she hadn't died. Perhaps it had been his father's fault though – he wished _he_ hadn't been such a jerk, and that he hadn't inherited that.

And at some moment, in between wishes and thoughts, he fell asleep, or so he thought because he was almost literally shaken back to reality by someone tugging at his arm in a rather unkind way.

"Zelos! Zelos! Wake up already, idiot!"

He opened his eyes and blinked, still sleepy. "Wha...? Wh-?"

"Get up, hurry!" Sheena was still tugging at his arm, smiling and looking almost mischievous. "Hurry, I'm telling you!"

"I would if you'd tell me what's- "

"No time, just hurry!" she took his arm and dragged him out of the room and down the stairs with no regard for his sleep-zombie state of consciousness. "Lloyd found something awesome, and everybody's out except for you!"

"And you decided to get me? I'm moved, babe..." really, he was.

The girl closed the door to the inn and quickly turned around, hiding a small blush that he, however, managed to see. "Don't – don't go thinking any of this!"

He followed her to the outskirts of the city, where he could see a fairly big group of people sitting on the grass, his travel companions amongst them.

"Come, sit, sit..." the girl dragged him close to the others and down onto the grass. "Now, look!" she pointed at the sky.

His breath caught in his throat for a moment. All over his head the stars that should've been adorning the sky were falling, slowly and elegantly, forming beautiful lines over the night-blue sky.

Lloyd turned to him and grinned, but he scarcely saw that before returning his eyes to the sky.

"Colette and I were taking a walk and I saw it! Isn't it great?"

"It's so pretty!" the girl added, nodding her head excitedly.

The three 'kids' in the group, Genis, Presea and Mithos, were staring fixedly at the falling stars and said nothing at all. Smiling at that Raine sighed happily. "We're lucky we get to see something like this."

"Indeed. This isn't a common view, much less in places like Meltokio or Altamira."

Zelos still didn't say anything but moved his eyes down to Sheena, who was sitting next to him. She, too, averted her eyes and smiled at him.

"See now why I told you to hurry?"

"...yeah," his chest felt funny again, so he lifted his gaze once more.

"Make a wish, Colette!" he could hear Lloyd say not far.

"We should all make a wish," was the young angel's reply, "There are enough stars for all of us."

"Yeah! Let's make a wish, Mithos! And uh, you too, P-presea..."

He had to smile.

"Alright then! I wish all the girls in the worlds will give their undying love to me, the great Chosen of Tethe'alla!"

"You idiot Chosen, you're not supposed to tell anyone!"

"Uh? Why not, Sheena?" Colette cocked her head.

"Your wish will come true only if kept a secret," Raine explained.

"I see... then I'll have to do it quietly..."

"Do I get a second try?"

"As if I would know..."

He snickered and moved closed to what could possibly maybe be the new object of his feelings that kind of seemed to be akin to affections and brushed his hand against hers before taking it into his. Just an hour or two ago he had had too many wishes, so many that not even all these starts would be enough.

But right now, he only wished that she wouldn't take her hand away.

And she didn't.

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**Notes:** On one hand I feel this O-dai was flawed from the very beginning, since Zelos being scolded by Mithos seems to fit better for an angst fic. On the other hand I like it because it is what my Muse wanted to write, and she wouldn't hear of anything else. Damn her.

Well then, there it is. First time I do an in-game fic, but I'm not completely disappointed. I hope you liked it, and thank you for your reviews last chapter!

_WDR_

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On we go...

_#7 – Pair-look_

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	8. Normal 8 Pairlook ¨¨Pea Rukku¨¨

**Disclaimer:** All appearing characters and places belong to Namco unless otherwise specified.

The O-dai themes belong to the Zeroshii-Wa, at http/deburu98249.jog. but written correctly. If you visit, don't steal!

**Setting:** In-game, in between Flanoir and Heimdall.

**Explanation:** The Japanese have this concept that "pair look" is when two people dress to match the other, either in identical clothes or in matching costumes. I decided to go with that idea.

**Warnings:** **OMFG** this is Colloyd, not Zeroshii, **how dares she!** Explanation at the bottom. So, Colloyd, light Zeroshii, and Zelos being a perv teen, even though he's 22.

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Normal Version,

**#8 – Pair-Look**

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Colette smiled at particularly no one. Sure, they still had plenty of hardships ahead but at that very moment there was no reason not to smile.

Sitting next to the river at Dirk's house the young blonde sighed contently. From her position she could see what everyone was doing – the professor reading a book at the shade of the tree and looking peacefully content, Presea showing a very flustered Genis how to carve wood-figurines while Regal watched over them, an oddly fatherly smile on his lips as he looked at the young pink-haired girl.

At the veranda upstairs Zelos and Sheena were talking – she couldn't hear what they were saying but Sheena wasn't screaming and Zelos hadn't been flung off the terrace so she assumed they were talking about normal things, for once.

And inside the house...

She had always had a soft spot for Lloyd. But that wasn't such a big deal, really – she had a soft spot for Genis, too (he was like a younger brother) and for Sheena (she was like an older sister) and even for Zelos (she understood a little the way he felt) and, truth to be told, she had a soft spot for every single dog in the world.

But as their travels had continued she had realized that she liked Lloyd a whole lot more than she would ever like any dog, or any friend. The twin-bladed swordsman was different... people said he was naïve because he was unable to discriminate, that he was idealistic for believing that in both worlds peace could reign amongst the people.

She didn't see anything wrong with that. In fact what she didn't understand was how could people not hope for a world such as the one Lloyd desired.

But then again, people did tend to say that, because she believed that there's some good in every single being, she too was idealist and innocent to the point of naïveté, even stupidity.

That suited her just fine though. Let them think what they want - she knew better. 'Look at me now!' she felt like saying, 'Look at where my naïveté has brought me! Look at where _his_ naïveté has brought us!' Lloyd's ideals were about to make the world better and there was no doubt about it: that much she was sure of.

And now Lloyd was inside the house, talking with Dirk. They were supposed to go to Heimdall as soon as possible – Kratos was waiting there for one last showdown, and it was because of this that Lloyd had asked the party to allow him to visit his foster father before.

No one had refused the swordsman's request – he had done too much for them to deny him such a simple thing. And, after Zelos had whined he had been too stressed lately (something no-one dared to doubt, after his show at the Tower of Salvation) it had been decided: one night at Iselia's peaceful forest wouldn't harm anyone.

Humming happily Colette got up from her place at the river-bank and brushed her legs off. It was about time someone started preparing supper, and everyone else looked so happily occupied right now that she figured she'd do it herself.

A gust of wind blew her hair back and as flock of birds left a nearby tree she twisted her head backwards to look at them flying past.

Bad idea.

"Ah... ah! Whooops!"

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Lloyd was talking with his foster father, explaining the dwarf everything that had happened. About Kratos, about Mithos Yggdrasil, about the Tower of Salvation and Zelos and what he needed to do now.

The dwarf hadn't said much: he kept his brow furrowed and nodded gravely every now and then. Lloyd was thankful for that – right now what he needed wasn't words, just understanding and acceptance. And in anything, Dirk was able to give him that – as their talk neared the end, without many words exchanged there was a mutual agreement; one which said that no matter what happened the link that existed between them wouldn't be ever erased.

And then he heard it.

"Whooops!"

Followed by the sound of much water splashing.

After a few instants of silence he got up and ran out of the house. Laughter was coming from the second floor balcony and then he could hear Sheena yelling.

"Don't laugh! You don't even know if she's alright!"

"She's fine, she's fine!" the redheaded answered in between laughs, rubbing his arm where he had probably been punched by the ninja.

Genis, Presea and Regal were behind him, walking hurriedly towards the river, where the professor was pulling a very, very wet Colette out of the water.

"Colette!" Lloyd called, rushing forward to help the half-elf, "Are you alright?"

The blonde smiled sheepishly, "Uh, yeah... I just tripped," she grinned, "Sorry..."

He sighed. "Don't apologize... ah, why am I not surprised?"

"What is surprising is she hadn't fallen before..." Genis muttered behind them, earning himself a glare from Raine, who turned her head to the people at the balcony.

"Sheena! Do me a favor and get Colette a clean set of clothes, please. Colette," the woman continued, looking at the angel (who was starting to shiver) "Get inside the house, we can't have you getting a cold now of all times."

"Y-yes, professor..." following Raine and next to Colette, Lloyd entered the house as well . They had barely set at the small living room when, from upstairs, Sheena and Zelos appeared at his bedroom's door. The redheaded Chosen threw down a towel which he caught and handed to the drenched girl who quickly wrapped it around herself.

"Eh, Raine..." Sheena started, "There are no clean clothes..."

The older Sage sibling raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Yeah, it seems what she's wearing was her last set, and the others are either really dirty or completely creased up. We were thinking of using the afternoon to wash the... _what are you doing with that, Zelos! That's mine!_"

"Wha, this? I was just wondering how you can make it work with these many clasps – I mean, normal ones have only one or two, but four? And then I figured I'd get some practice at it..."

"Practice? _Practice?-?_ I'll show you practice!-!"

Raine sighed while Zelos ran 'screaming' into the room, followed by Sheena. "While those two carry on their usual, we need to do something about Colette. Sheena could... no, her clothes wouldn't do. I guess I could lend you some of mine, but they'll fit you horribly."

"...in terms of size Lloyd's frame is the most similar," Presea's voice sounded steady as ever.

"But... but Colette can't really wear boy's clothes..." Genis started.

Regal shook his head. "Presea's right, however. The only one whose clothes might fit her correctly is Lloyd."

"Very well," Raine nodded, "Do you have a clean set, Lloyd?"

"Eh, yeah... this is my house, after all. And I really should get those two out of my room before they destroy it anyway..." he muttered, heading upstairs. Getting Zelos and Sheena out wasn't too hard (or at least easier than getting Sheena not to kill Zelos for snooping around her bags) and he quickly found a pair of old pants along with a red shirt like the one he always used. Still, they were too big... even with the suspenders he didn't think she could keep the pants up.

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She felt the fabric on her skin. It was a little rougher than what she was used to but it was a nice, sturdy feeling.

With Lloyd's big boots she felt a little boyish and even clumsier than before, as if even taking a step would be so different it'd made her fall down. But it was nice... the fabric smelled like wood and, she figured, if the darkness of being inside a closet for years had a smell, they would smell of that, too.

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Colette looked down at her feet, blushing a little. "How do I look?"

Zelos was, of course, the first to react. "..._cute_! Look at that, she made the bumpkin's clothes look nice!"

"Who – who's a bumpkin!" Lloyd quickly yelled back.

"He's right," Genis snickered, "She looks better than you, Lloyd."

"Er..." Lloyd wanted to yell something like 'shut up!' but given how Colette was looking at him that wasn't an option.

Besides, both Zelos and Genis were right – his clothes fit the girl in an oddly cute way. She had left the shirt un-tucked so it looked more like her old dress than a male's shirt, and the suspenders had been used as a belt instead, so they hung loose under the 'dress'.

"Thanks!" she smiled at the young half-elf. "They are very comfy, really..."

"They look warmer than your other attire, Chosen," commented Regal.

"Yes! Even the boots fit me well," she giggled and shifted her feet a little.

Grinning, Lloyd took the girl's shoulder. "They fit you just well, Colette!"

"Thanks! Um, I'll give them back as soon as my clothes dry out..."

"You can keep those... they don't even fit me that well anymore."

"Re-really?" the swordsman was a little surprised at how much her eyes lit up at the possibility, but he had always liked to see that special glimmer.

"Of course!"

"Ah, thanks so much, Lloyd!"

He grinned broadly at her. "We match now!"

Zelos half smiled at the exchange between turning to his side. "Heeeey, Sheena, let's do that too! Here, you can wear my vest!"

"Wh-why would I want to wear that!"

"C'mon! I bet I'd look hot in purple anyway!"

"Gah! It's smelly! Zelos, get that away from me!"

"Fine then, you can have my shirt then! It's low cut and black, you can't complain!"

"D-don't take your shirt off – I'm telling you to – aaaah, you pervert!"

"It's just a shirt! C'mon, I bet you'd look great in black!"

"Raine! Tell Zelos to put his shirt on!"

"Raine! Tell Sheena to put this shirt on!"

"Raine! Tell them to shut up already!"

Raine grimaced and pretended to be absorbed in a book she had on her lap, while Regal sighed and Presea smirked at the scene, in which Genis was already involved. Lloyd, too, sighed a little, half-smiling. "Sometimes those two make me wonder."

"They are like kids, aren't they?" the girl nodded.

"Yeah, and then Zelos calls me immature..."

"Lloyd... uhm..." she stopped. She had been wanting to ask him what would he do after their battles were over, but perhaps this wasn't the time.

"Yes?"

"Um, I was wondering if you'd help me prepare dinner...?"

His reaction was just as she expected – a honest, big smile and a hearty nod. Perhaps she could talk with him later, once they arrived at Heimdall. Right now she was just happy with his old clothes and the chance of having him near while she cooked.

Sheena looked at the couple as they went for the kitchen and half-sighed.

"They do look cute together," she muttered.

Zelos, in the process of getting re-dressed, smiled at her. "That they do. Like two gnomes."

"...gnomes?"

"And I still say we could beat them, you know," he continued, resting his arm over the sofa so it enveloped her without even making contact, "If you would only take my clothes."

She smirked. "Yeah right, to leave you running around in that awful speedo?"

"Well, we could do it backwards! _I_ wouldn't mind you running around in a speedo."

The girl blushed crimson."...st-stop making suicidal comments and get dressed, idiot!"

Zelos laughed as she got up and left towards the stairs, following her almost immediately with his vest still off. Genis looked at Lloyd and Colette at the kitchen and then at the other two 'arguing' at the bedroom's door, and then wondered if adults would be easier to understand once he became one as well.

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**Notes:** OMG, so what was that supposed to be? Colloyd? Zeroshii? Nothing at all? Well, this is the Normal Version, so it doesn't have to be all mushy mushy stuff. 

Some of you might have recognized the underlining original idea here – in the PS2 version of ToS you can get Colette a new title; "Kimi to Osoroi", which means "Matching You" or "I Match You". With that title equipped Colette dresses like Lloyd. Not having played the PS2 version I can't say much on how she gains it (I do know she falls into a river) but, since I had _absolutely no ideas_ for this O-dai and the theme was so much Colloyd-esque, I decided to go with it.

Oh, in the game version Lloyd ends up in his underwear for a while. But I really didn't know how to play that into this, so it was left aside :P

Also, I had wanted to write some light Colloyd since a while ago. I think I'll do something like this again – when I have no good Zelos/Sheena ideas, I'll just do Lloyd/Colette and be done with it...

Thanks so much to all the reviewers, and sorry for not answering on this occasion. I promise to do it this time -.- As for why I took so long - well, my brain died during vacations (I swear I spent two weeks doing macrame because I was too tired for anything else) and then my fingers caught a flu. I hope I'll be able to keep it up now!

_WDR_

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_#9 – Fight_

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	9. Normal 9 Fight ¨¨Kenka¨¨

**Disclaimer:** All appearing characters and places belong to Namco unless otherwise specified.

The O-dai themes belong to the Zeroshii-Wa, at http/deburu98249.jog. but written correctly. If you visit, don't steal!

**Setting: **In-game, before meeting Kratos at Torent. _Spoilers!_

**Warnings:** Well, mentions of sexual tension.

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Normal Version,

**#9 – Fight**

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"You... you stupid, stupid Chosen!"

She wasn't yelling because she knew she mustn't. Because she knew that Lloyd needed to rest, and that if she started to yell the swordsman could get stressed and right now too many things depended on him.

Lloyd needed to fight Kratos.

He needed to fight Origin. He needed to get the Eternal Sword.

Lloyd couldn't be distracted right now.

But she couldn't really stand it any more. Sheena Fujibayashi's temper was short and explosive, which suited her fine, but it was hard to deal with it when she had to keep calm.

Zelos Wilder had just shown them all that he was the opposite: he kept everything inside and let it grow. From her point of view, however, that wasn't patience; that was stupidity.

Right now she was angry. Very, very angry. She had many things to think about and, more importantly, many things to yell. So now that night had fallen on Heimdall and the rest of the group were at the Inn, each of them busy with their own business, she had taken Tethe'alla's Chosen with her, off to the fence that marked the limit between the village and the Ymir Forest.

There she had turned around and without much warning slapped him, yelling (very quietly) afterwards 'You... you stupid, stupid Chosen!'.

Zelos Wilder's answer consisted of three steps: first he (naturally) looked surprised at the slap, second he had glared furiously at her, and third he had answered, in his what-a-joke voice,

"I - I _knew_ there was something wrong when you didn't slap me back at the Tower, hunny!" it had sounded strained, though.

She huffed and tried not to hit him again. "We didn't have time at that moment. _Now_, however, there's plenty."

"Wrong," he said, taking a hand up to his bruised cheek and cleaning a bit of blood out of his mouth. "You've got a few minutes 'cause I'm too tired for this tonight. Man, you just had to hit me with everything you had, didn't you? This'll look terrible in the morning."

Those words, jokingly thrown around as he did on a daily basis, suddenly sounded strange combined with the bluntness of his previous statement.

She felt her face heating up and clenched her fist. _Angry_.

"A few minutes... you expect me to be content with just –"

"I don't expect anything of you," he smirked, "Except perhaps a kiss or two, mh?"

"...don't you change the topic! I'm not allowing you to... I won't," she knew what he was doing. Every time he wanted to escape her he would do it. He would say stupid things, he would talk about his 'hunnies' in Meltokio, he would hit on her or even try to grope her. That way she would get angry and leave.

It worked every time.

Not tonight, thought Sheena.

"...why did you pull that stunt?" she re-started, trying to keep her voice down. It wasn't easy.

He shrugged. "I needed to do it. No other way to get the Aionis, remember? I kinda explained it before when I re-appeared."

"You could've warned us!" she countered, "You could've told us about that thing, we could've stormed Cruxis again and get it!"

He didn't answer. Instead, he just stood there staring at her as if her speech was the most boring thing ever.

"Answer me!" again, she made an effort not to yell.

Zelos kept staring at her for a few instants before laughing softly. To her ears it sounded more like a well-hid sigh.

"C'mon hunny. What's done is done, right? What's the use of worrying about it now?" he flicked his hair back, "So if you need to blow some steam that bad, why don'cha shadow-spar or something? I'm not... I'm too tired for that kind of games tonight."

Games.

It was true. The relationship they shared was based in games. Child-like games. He would pull her hair, she would pull his. He would call him names, he would call her back. He would slap her butt, she would punch him. He would ogle her chest, she would yell at him for three days.

Yes, child-like games – perhaps a little more sexual, and a little more violent, but games nonetheless.

"I'm being serious," she seethed.

He opened his mouth as if to answer then shook his head and frowned.

"Too bad," Zelos almost spat before turning around to head for the Inn.

Sheena had seen very few of the Chosen's moods. In fact, she had only seen him either happy, with that stupid happy-go-lucky grin of his, or a little bit sad, after they had met his sister at the abbey.

It wasn't until that very day, a few hours ago, that she even realized he had lied for most of the trip. So perhaps all the times he looked happy he was actually sad, or lonely, or irritated.

Right now she could see that he, just like her, was angry. Why, she wondered. She now knew, though, that he had his share of things to get angry about.

She caught his jacket. "I'm not done!"

"Well _I_ am! Need my beauty sleep," he grinned, mockingly.

"Just tell me why you didn't say anything!"

"If I told you it was because I didn't feel like it would you leave me alone?"

"No!"

"Fine then, I didn't say anything because I didn't feel like it! No other explanation."

"I don't believe that."

"Well, believe whatever you want and let me sleep then."

"Zelos..."

"Yes, hunny?" again he smiled. He _knew_ calling her like that would irritate her, he knew that smile would make her angry.

"Please," she said. Two could play the weakness game, so she dulcified her voice. "Please... just a few minutes..."

He grunted, crossed his arms and rolled his eyes but didn't leave.

"...why would you do it? You... scared us."

"Aaaagh, you're pushing it!"

"You were pushing it first!"

"At least I wasn't so damned obvious!"

"Yeah right, even your smile was calculated!"

The two suddenly looked around. No one had seemed disturbed by their yelling.

He sighed and broke the sudden silence. "Look, I already told you. I didn't feel like telling any of you, and that's that."

"But why's that? That's what I want to hear.," she huffed once more, "You – you could've told me at the very least! That way I could've calmed Lloyd and the others and..." she stopped because suddenly he was looking at her, his eyes dead serious and almost sad.

"Look," he closed his eyes for an instant, looking tired, and then continued. "I didn't tell you – or anyone, for that matter – because I didn't know whether I would be coming back."

"...what? You – when did you decide to come back then?"

He smiled bitterly. "Remember Pronyma told me to hurry up so we could leave?"

"...yes."

"Just then."

"Then you had your mind pretty much made up! Don't go making –"

"No, I didn't. I... how to put it?" the man interrupted, looking aside at the river that flowed close by before returning to face her. "I made a bet with myself. If Pronyma ordered me to follow, I would return to you all. If she ordered me to fight, I would fight."

"...you would've... killed us?" she suddenly felt very, very cold.

"Four against one? I don't think so," he answered, laughing.

In a matter of seconds Sheena understood what he meant. "You – you!" she struggled to find words for what she wanted to say, "Idiot! Pervert! Stupid! We wouldn't have done that! Moron! Jerk!"

"But you would have! That's why I didn't tell any of you!" Zelos defended himself, obviously still angry.

"I don't care! Idiot!"

"If you're just going to keep insulting me... look, I told you what you wanted to hear, right? How about you leave me alone now!"

"You just told me you made a bet about your own life and you expect me to leave you alone?"

"Aw, c'mon, really! It's not as if its worth that much anyw... er..." he said and then stopped short; as if he had said something he had no intention of making public.

Sheena stared at him. What he had just said was something she had never expected to hear from him. He, who spent his days boasting about his own greatness... she, too had felt like that once, a long time ago. But she had met Corrine, and she had met Lloyd and the others. And she had met Zelos, too.

And he had met them all, and he had traveled along, and they were friends. So why, then?

"...do you really mean that?"

She wasn't yelling because she knew she mustn't. Because she knew that right now it wouldn't take her anywhere. So even though her gut was on fire and her hands clenched into fists, she didn't yell.

It did come out as a very angry little murmur though.

However, he shook his head and smiled lightly. "No. Not anymore, or at least not often. I was kinda convinced by Lloyd, I guess."

"Then why did you say it!"

"It was something my mother told me once. In her deathbed, you could say," he sighed, "That kinda thing gets stuck into one's head."

"...she was wrong, though."

"I know. I know, but there are times when..." he waved his hands around. "Well, now you see why I chase girls around, though."

"Oh yes. You suffer from the biggest Oedipus Complex I've ever seen."

"Yep yep, that's just it," he grinned. "And because I like boobs, too."

"...pervert."

He laughed. "You still angry?"

"When am I not angry at you?"

"How about now?"

"...just a little."

"There's my sweet hunny!" he patted her head and she pushed his hand aside. "So all you needed was to blow some steam, see?"

"That applies to you, too."

The Chosen smiled. "I'll admit it helped. _But_, you still needn't hit me like that...""

"Oh, stop whining..." she punched his shoulder playfully before walking past him and towards the inn.

"So I listen to your yelling and I don't get anything?"

She didn't stop and he started to follow. With her arms behind he back Sheena looked at the sky.

"You got me to understand you a little better. Isn't that good enough?"

"That's not what I... how am I supposed to answer that?"

"If you're going to sound like an idiot, you don't need to."

"Yeah, yeah..." he whined. "I can only hope you'll be too tired to yell tomorrow then."

"Only if you're too tired to be a pervert."

"With you around? Wouldn't count on that."

"Wh – hey! You – you shouldn't count on me not yelling then!"

Zelos laughed and headed into the room he shared with the rest of the males. "Night, hunny. Oh, and Sheena?" he stopped before closing the door.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks," and before she could answer he had disappeared.

Some times she thought that the only relationship that could ever exist between the two was just the constant fights that they had; with him pretending to be an idiot and she pretending to get angry over every tiny detail.

"...you're welcome."

She was glad he had proved her wrong though.

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**Notes:** Difficult O-dai because while Sheena gets angry easily enough it takes a lot more for Zelos. If you think of it, is he ever angry during the game? The only time I can think of when he was angry was during the Rode Ride Tour (which you can find at my proile, thankyouforreadingthisad) and that was because of jealousy.

This, therefore, was going to be _so_ angsty, but then I decided to make it more light-hearted and be done with it... I kinda like how it turned out. I know it doesn't really respect what happens in the game but oh well... I think that after all that had gone by in that day Zelos must've felt really tired and at least _I_ tend to get angry when I'm tired ;

Anyway, thanks for reading this ninth entry. Next we have the glorious tenth!

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_#10 – As always_

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	10. Normal 10 As Always ¨¨Itsumono¨¨

**Disclaimer:** All appearing characters and places belong to Namco unless otherwise specified.

The O-dai themes belong to the Zeroshii-Wa, at http/deburu98249.jog. but written correctly. If you visit, don't steal!

**Setting: **In-game, after you've gotten Regal into your party but way before the game's big events.

**Warnings:** Heavy with dialogue again, 'cause many characters appear.

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Normal Version,

**#10 – As always**

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"So... should I wake her up?"

"You think that's a good idea, professor?"

"Why do you ask, Lloyd?"

"Er... well... I'm not sure Colette, but Regal and the professor are always saying it's not a good idea to leave Zelos alone with a girl..."

Raine sighed. Even though she had given Lloyd _the talk_ quite a few times already he still had a few problems when it came to that.

Zelos, however, was pretty undaunted. "So... should I wake her up?" he repeated, with exactly the same smile as before.

The half-elf sighed. "I guess you should. Genis and Regal will have breakfast ready pretty soon, so..."

"Yes, it'd be a shame if she missed it!" Colette exclaimed.

"Yeah, their pancakes are the best!" Lloyd followed.

"And we got jam in the last town! Strawberry and apricot!"

"And they even made some juice!"

Raine looked at the two youths and then at the girl by whose side they were kneeling along with Zelos. At first she thought it surprising that Sheena, even though she was a highly-trained spy and hand-to-hand combatant, was perhaps the heaviest sleeper amongst the group.

Right now it was even more surprising she was able to sleep even with Lloyd and Colette talking loudly about pancakes just next to her.

"Fine then," she got up from where she was sitting, "Wake her up and tell her to hurry if she wants to be ready for breakfast."

"Yes, professor!" Lloyd and Colette answered at once.

"Sheeee-naaa! Sheee-naaa?" the 'angel' proceeded to take the ninja's arm and shake it softly. "Wake up, Sheena! You'll miss breakfast if you don't!"

No response.

"Hey, Sheena?" Lloyd, too tried to move her awake but the black-haired girl didn't even stir.

"You're doing it all wrong," the redheaded Chosen commented. "Sheena ain't gonna wake up just with nice words."

"What do you mean; we have to yell at her or something?" Lloyd arched an eyebrow.

"Nah, not really... you just need to know a few tricks."

"Then _you_ wake her up then!"

Colette nodded, almost eager. "You've known her for longer, right Zelos?"

He smiled almost evilly. "Oh yes. But now I don't feel like waking her up."

"Eh? Why?" the twin-swordsman cocked his head, "You were asking for permission just before...!"

"Yeah, but she's just too cute!" Zelos exclaimed _loudly_ in his weirdest possible voice and then poked the girl's cheek, "See? She's nice and peaceful!" poke "And doesn't even move!" poke and a small frown in Sheena's brow "And she's SOFT," poke, "And WARM," poke, "And looks sooo angelical, and...!"

"Will you cut that out, you stupid Chosen!" said Sheena, pushing the man's hand away.

Most unfortunately she was still half asleep, so it came out like "Wol y' cute't aut, y'shpid sho'sen!"

Zelos laughed. "Ta-dah! Up she is!"

"...Zelos... that wasn't exactly a 'trick'..."

"But it worked, didn't it?"

Sheena, meanwhile, had sat up onto her sleep-bag and was rubbing her cheek. "Why did you allow that idiot to wake me like that!"

"Well, you wouldn't wake otherwise, so..."

"And Zelos said he knew a few tricks!"

"...Colette, here's a lesson for you – don't trust Zelos' tricks from now on, yes?"

"Feh!" the Chosen exclaimed, "That's all the thanks I get? If I had known you'd ell so much I would've let you sleep. 'Sides, you look better asleep than you do awake!"

"What did you say?"

"Look in a mirror, I'd say."

"Y-you – well, at least I'm not so as vain as you!"

The man brushed his hair back luxuriously. "Vain? I only use what I've been given, hunny."

"Yeah right... you get early just to brush it!"

"And that's why it looks like this," he tugged at his own hair before taking a strand of hers, "Instead of like this."

"Leave my hair alone, you self-conceited arrogant...!"

Lloyd and Colette left the two and headed towards the place were Raine was helping Genis and Regal set the pancakes onto the plates while Presea tried to put out the fire by throwing some dirt on top of it.

"She's up, professor!" the blonde girl chirped.

"Yes, I noticed," the woman answered, not bothering to look up, "It's hard not to, the way she shouts."

"Yes," Genis sighed, "And it's always like that, too! I know Sheena hates him, but I was hoping she'd gotten used to him by now."

"...hates?" Colette took a plate from the young half-elf's hands. "I don't think Sheena hates Zelos..."

"Really? But... back at Sylvarant she was always saying she couldn't stand him and..." Genis motioned back to the two of them.

"Mmh, that's strange," Regal contributed, balancing a big plate with the remaining pancakes while Presea, next to him, brought two smaller dishes containing the marmalades, "I've heard that the Chosen and Sheena were good friends at some point."

"Really?" all of Team Sylvarant asked.

"Yes," the convict nodded, "The Chosen participated in many experiments at the Imperial Research Academy, and Sheena, too, visited that place for the experiments on Summon Spirits."

"...there is a 96 chance they had disagreements during their work together."

Colette, however, didn't erase her smile. "But they get along really well!"

"...really well?"

"Yes! Like... like two childhood friends!"

"Chil_dish_ friends, you mean..." Raine muttered.

They could hear Sheena yelling "I have to get redressed, so leave me alone now!"

And Zelos answering "But I've always been curious about that sash of yours, I need to see how you put it on!"

Raine and Regal sighed.

"Colette's right, however. That's not hate."

"No?"

"No," Colette shook her head, "I think they're happy with that kind of thing."

Genis still looked as though he didn't really believe it. "If they're happy, why would they fight so much?"

"You fight with Lloyd all the time!" Raine interceded.

"I do not!"

"...37 of Genis' exchanges with Lloyd consist of jabs at his intelligence level."

"... you were actually counting, Presea?"

"...wait a minute, if she's right about that then it's a whole lots of times!"

"You noticed just now Lloyd...?

"At any rate," Raine interrupted, seeing that Zelos and Sheena were walking over to the place where they were sitting (more like Sheena was walking towards them while yelling something at Zelos, who was following behind at a prudent distance) "I've always believed it's good to have things to hold onto. Normality. Things that won't even change. Perhaps those two behaving like ten year old kids is one of the things we can trust... now try not to provoke them, I don't feel like listening to their fights all day long."

"But you just said..."

"_Yes_, Genis? What did I say?"

"...nothing..."

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Normal Version,

**#10 – As always - II**

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"...you've gotten... tall!"

"You've grown a little too, Colette."

It was true. The 'angel' had grown an inch or two and had finally lost her baby-looks. Her face looked much mature and yet just as innocent as when they had parted.

She hugged her half-elven friend fiercely. "But nothing like you! You must be taller than Lloyd by now!"

"No, not really... not _yet_," the silver-haired boy added just as the twin swordsman entered the room accompanied by the professor.

"Very funny," Lloyd faked a smile and then opened his eyes in honest surprise. "But she's right, you're way taller now!"

"Yeah, well, it was about time I started growing..."

Raine smiled. "Yes. Even though he knows half-elves grow slower than humans do, Genis was always very self-conscious about his height."

"Well, he _was_ a squirt, so I can't blame him."

"Zelos!" Colette squealed and ran to hug the second Chosen, who returned her embrace with as much enthusiasm.

"We found him just outside town," Lloyd explained.

"You're the last, Zelos," Raine admonished, "Regal and Presea arrived yesterday."

"Sorry, sorry," the redhead grinned. "I just couldn't bring myself to leave my pretty Meltokio hunnies... but I might just steal Colette away instead..."

"Please..." Genis rolled his eyes.

"Whaaaaat, as if she'd give up such a chance just beca-"

He never got to finish his sentence as a spoon full of some sticky substance fell on top of his head.

"Agh!"

"You're late!" standing at the door to the kitchen Sheena held a bowl in her hands. Next to her stood Presea with a little smile on her face.

Genis' blush was instantaneous. "P-presea – uh – you – uh – you look – er –"

"Yes," she nodded, "My time has finally started to move again."

"I – I didn't - "

"Rosebud! You look prettier than ever!"

"Zelos, were you listening at all?-!"

"Ah, yes, yes..." the man sighed and took the spoon up from the ground and tried to clean the mix off his hair. "You just had to ruin my hair, didn't you?"

"You just had to make stupid remarks, didn't you?"

Lloyd smiled and half-turned to Colette and the professor. "Seems some things just don't change."

The blonde nodded, smiling while the older woman sighed.

"Incredible that even after three years they still behave like that."

"Well, it's not as if you have changed much, my Gorgeous Ultra Cool Beauty," Zelos retorted, still trying to get his hair clean. "Or Lloyd, for that matter. I was kinda expecting you two to share a house and have a dog or something like that..."

Colette looked surprised. "I hadn't thought of that! Lloyd, can we get a dog?"

"Of course! You like animals so much I can't believe you forgot about that..."

Genis opened his mouth, closed it and then opened it again. "...I just can't find anything to say."

"...well that makes us two, brat."

"What?" Lloyd looked confused. "I mean, we've been traveling together for like three years, more if you take our trip together into account... it'd be _weird_ not to be with her."

It always surprised everyone how Lloyd was able to say things like that without any problem. But then again, that was just the way he was – simple and honest. Colette, however, did blush a little at the boy's words and even more when he took her hand as asked "Right, Colette?" but nodded and held onto his arm.

"Well, that was unexpected..."

Sheena grinned. "That's what you get for being late. They explained their plans to me before. Now if you excuse me, Presea and I have to go help Regal in the kitchen. And you need to go clean yourself."

"Yeah right, and whose fault is this?"

"Yours!"

As the ninja was turning around, however, everyone was surprised when Zelos took her by her usual pink ribbons and pulled her back into his arms before turning her around and placing a firm kiss on her lips.

Everyone was even more surprised when, instead of much yelling, Sheena only tapped his cheek with the spoon before kissing him again and then disappeared into the kitchen.

The Chosen cleaned his cheek and licked his fingers off. "What?" he waved vaguely at Lloyd and Colette, "Those two ain't the only ones who can change, you know."

Genis shook his head. "I'm not sure I can call that change."

The again, he guessed, some things didn't need change to be enjoyable.

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**Notes:** So yeah, I had the two of them ready and I really didn't know which one to post. The 'second' one is too short, the 'first' was too... vague, I guess, andneither felt complete.So you get a double o-dai this time because I couldn't bring myself to erase any of those - I mean, the first is more normalish and the second is fluff, and I'll force myself to believe they kind of complete one another. And it's double 'cause, uh, because it's #10! Gotta celebrate... wait, no, 'cause I'm not posting double again on #20. Forget about that.

Thank you so very much for all the reviews! At times it surprises me the amount of response I've gotten, specially for a collection of one-shots that share no connection in between. Thank you, thank you, thank you! For those of you who didn't notice, I added a "mission-statement" thing in the first chapter, which isn't really important but still...

Well, thank you again for reading. See you next week with...

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_#11 – Worry_

WTH am I supposed to write for this one, huh?

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	11. Normal 11 Worry ¨¨Nayami¨¨

**Disclaimer:** All appearing characters and places belong to Namco unless otherwise specified.

The O-dai themes belong to the Zeroshii-Wa, at http/deburu98249.jog. but written correctly. If you visit, don't steal!

**Setting: **In-game.

**Warnings: **Spoiler-iffic! Some fluff?

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Normal Version,

**#11 – Worry**

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Colette wrung her hands together but didn't even notice she was doing that. In front of her walked Pronyma (floated, more like it) and behind her Zelos made sure she didn't stray. Two times she had stopped, Goddess knew why because it wasn't as if she was about to try and run away, and in both occasions a firm push from the Chosen behind had motioned her forward. Firm, but not rough.

"I shall go on ahead and let Yggdrassil know about this," said Pronyma, suddenly stopping and looking at the redhead Chosen. "So he may ready the Great Seed."

Colette didn't dare to look up and instead kept wringing her hands, still unconscious of the movement.

Behind her she could hear Zelos' answer. "Yes, my Lady! Be careful, now, we wouldn't want such features to be marred, yes?"

Still she didn't look up, so she didn't see Pronyma rolling her eyes. "Take her straight to the Chamber, Chosen. We'll be waiting for you."

And in a swoosh the woman had disappeared.

Colette kept herself just as she was. She didn't feel brave enough to look at the face of the man who had just sold her out. She didn't feel brave enough to do anything but stand there, in shock. She wished she had her arms back – but then again, what for? Even after all that had happened in the past ten minutes, she wouldn't be able to strike Zelos. She wasn't brave enough. Not right now.

The man behind her sighed and placed a hand on her shoulder, shaking her softly towards a hallway to the right. They walked side by side, in silence, and the girl saw nothing but the floor moving under her feet.

Until she felt her head sway and fell down, that's it. The fact that this small trip to the floor hadn't been because of her clumsiness helped her little.

For her surprise, Zelos was almost instantly kneeling next to her, asking whether she was feeling alright and lifting her up with care, resting her against a nearby wall.

"I'm... I'm fine..." she managed to whisper, her voice strangely weak.

"No you aren't..." she heard Zelos reply and then a strong hand took her chin and lifted her face.

And thus she was forced to look into the face she hadn't wanted to look.

Zelos looked at her critically. "You're pale," he stated and then let go of her and searched for something in his pockets and placed that same something in her palm. "Eat this."

The girl looked at her hand expecting to find something strange and alien, some kind of Derris-Kharlan pill, perhaps.

Instead there was a small candy wrapped in blue and white paper. The name was written with white pink – '_Snow Kisses_'.

For the first time in her life Colette couldn't get herself to trust someone. For the first time she wondered that perhaps it had been poisoned or had some drug inside of it. She stole a look at the other Chosen's face and found that he wasn't looking at her. He seemed to be staring into the opposite wall, moving his lips as if counting something she couldn't see.

Up close, she now noticed that he, too, was deathly pale and his eyes were surrounded by dark rings.

She looked at the candy again. She knew this kind of candy. They sold it everywhere in Flanoir; Snow Kisses. It was one of the local specialties, or at least one the tourists favored. She had seen Zelos buying it just the day before, when they arrived there in search of the doctor and decided to take a break until the others returned in the morning.

She gently tore away the wrap and took the small, white drop of candy into her mouth.

Next to her Zelos smiled a little. "The sugar'll do you good."

She nodded but averted looking into his eyes.

"It was just the shock, don't worry..." he looked out of the hallway and then up, and then turned and grinned. "You still look worried, angel. Why's that?"

As if by instinct she snapped her head around, eyes open wide in surprise. What a thing to ask, why was she worried, of all things...?

But then she saw his face and though he looked way more honest than she had ever seen him.

"Don't worry. You trust Lloyd, right?"

She nodded 'yes' again.

"Then you have nothing to worry about. You think he'd let his girl go off with an idiot like me?"

She couldn't believe it herself, but she had to stifle a giggle.

"See? It was only the shock."

"Zelos..." she started and looked up at him. 'Why did you do this?', she wanted to ask, but instead it came out like "Are you worried about something, too?"

The other Chosen looked surprised at the question. "...is that something you should worry about right now? I did capture you and all."

"Oh yes... sorry."

"You shouldn't apologize either. That's something _I_ should do..." he muttered and pressed the button to the elevator. "So... uh... sorry?"

Once more she chose not to answer.

"I have one more," Zelos continued, and showed her another blue-wrapped Snow Kiss. "And though I'd like to eat some, I have to hold on to it..."

"...why's that?"

He grinned. "I made a promise."

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"There!" he called and threw the package at the summoner, who caught it with ease.

"...what's this?" she asked, half glaring at him.

"How can you expect to know without even looking at it?"

Sheena sighed and looked at the bag in her hands. It was pastel blue and had pink letters on the top. _Snow Kisses_.

"...are you implying something with this?"

Zelos cocked an eyebrow, still grinning. "Nope, not this time. Just a heartfelt gift from me to my favoritest hunny."

"Speak correctly, idiot..." she grumbled, but a smile was already tugging at her lips. "So are these mine?"

"Yep! Heard you telling Colette how you would buy some when we visited Flanoir, and I saw some so..."

She narrowed her eyes. "Can I accept this freely?"

"What do you mean, freely?"

"No strings attached?"

He brushed his hair and gave her his best playboy smile. "Only if you want to, of course!"

"Idiot!" she yelled and threw a pair of candies at him, "You're trying to attach them! Moron!"

"Ouch! Wait, fine, so no strings... maaaaan, and it even wasn't me the one who said it..."

"Yeah, well..." Sheena stopped, "Wait a minute, this was open already! What kind of gift is this?"

"It's not as if I ate them...!"

"Then why would you open them?"

"There's a special surprise inside," he winked.

The girl sighed. "Can I trust your surprises?"

"Only as much as you can trust me," was his answer.

The girl stared at him for a few seconds before shaking her head. "I'll be ready for the worst then," but the two knew she didn't mean it. She smiled. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it..." he, too, smiled before moving his sight to the window behind her, looking uncharacteristically serious.

Sheena wondered whether to ask if anything was wrong, but this was Zelos she was thinking of. He would just shrug it off and answer something stupid or something that would piss her off.

So instead she took a few more candies and pocked at his chest 'till he looked at her. Which didn't really take long.

"What what what what whaaaaat?" he asked, one 'what' for each poke.

"Have this," she said only, showing the candies on her palm.

He stared at it for a few instants before grinning, picking the two others she had attacked him with before and pushing her hand aside.

"I'm afraid I'll have to pass – do you know what that much sugar does to my face?"

"What? Here I am, trying to be friendly and you --!"

"Besides, they are way too sweet!"

"Don't interrupt me when --!"

"I'll tell you what though," he grinned and showed her the two he had picked. "I'll hang onto these two, and I'll have one tomorrow with you, after everything goes well."

"...Zelos..." she started, "That's... that's the most ridiculous, stupidly romantic thing you've ever said."

"See now?-! Here I am, trying to be kind and sensitive and sh--!"

"Can you imagine how hard it is to keep a straight face at that though?" the girl was now laughing.

"Aaaah, fine then! I'll hang onto these anyway!"

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Colette took her hands to her mouth. "I ate Sheena's candy then! I'm sorry!"

Zelos forced a grin. "Colette, after all I've done candy isn't exactly what I'm worried about."

The girl cocked her head. "What is it, then?"

"Lots of things. Getting to everyone in time, getting to _you_ in time..." he had already explained her how he would hold onto her Key Crest and relocate it as soon as he had found the Aionis, and much to his relief Colette had assured him she believed in what he said. "And I still have one, anyway."

The 'angel' nodded.

"...you think she'll eat it?"

The girl nodded. "I'm sure she will."

"Aren't you scared?"

Now she shook her negative. "You said you'd come. And I _know_ Lloyd will come, too. I trust that."

"...I envy that a little," the redhead smiled and looked up. "But our ride is about to end. Ready?"

"...yes!"

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The day before, after dinner, Sheena's hand had wandered once more into her bad of newly-acquired sweets and she was surprised when she found something that felt somewhat different. A strip of paper.

In Zelos' handwriting, a message.

'_I'm sorry. Should've said something. Explain later. Don't worry!_'

She wasn't sure why, but she decided to hang onto it, so she placed it next to her clothes before heading to bed and hid it underneath her sash the morning after, telling no one. Snow Kisses tasted a little funny afterwards.

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**Notes:** I enjoyed the conversations between Colette and Zelos a little (well, more than a little) more than the pair-scenes. I guess that's why you get a Sheelos o-dai with so little interaction between the two. I didn't have much time at all this week and thus I couldn't go over it and check for mistakes or change what things I didn't like as I usually do, so I apologize if it feels rushed.

But I still liked it, I think.

Thanks to all who reviewed! It seems some liked the second part better while some others liked the first one best. It's nice to know I can somehow satisfy everyone! I hope you liked this one, too.

_WDR_

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_#12 - Salvation_

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	12. Normal 12 Salvation ¨¨Sukui¨¨

**Disclaimer:** All appearing characters and places belong to Namco unless otherwise specified.

The O-dai themes belong to the Zeroshii-Wa, at http/deburu98249.jog. but written correctly. If you visit, don't steal!

**Setting: **Before the events in the Tower of Salvation.

**Warnings: **Zelos likes nudes. Might look like angst at the beginning.

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Normal Version,

**#12 – Salvation**

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He tried to remember. It hadn't been a conscious urge – he had basically acted on impulse, no thinking.

The Otherworldly Gate was shining just before their eyes and they were surrounded by the Papal Knights and a man dressed in red, whose name she had once said meant 'Snake'.

He wondered what _her_ name meant, and then shook his head.

He had felt angry, he remembered, when she, instead of doing what was logical (running towards the gate) had offered herself as a sacrifice...

...he had almost hated her right then because just for an instant she had been just like him. Hated, helpless, not really willing to die but actually _wanting_ to die.

He had hated her and hated himself and then he had yelled something he couldn't remember and dragged her towards the shining Gate.

And so he had been the first Tethe'allan male to ever step into the declining world of Sylvarant.

Zelos Wilder had never believed in salvation, or at least not until that moment when, falling towards the Sylvarantian meadows he realized he had, for the first time in his life, saved someone.

He fell on top of her, both dazzled and confused, and then he heard the others yelling above his head as they followed before she started screaming at him to get off.

Sheena Fujibayashi had glared at him like never before, but he understood how she felt. He, too, would've gotten angry if someone frustrated his try at suicide.

But he hadn't cared. He felt oddly good about himself (a feeling almost alien) and so he grinned.

Now, Goddess knew how many days later, under a full moon, he sat outside of Altessa's house, legs crossed and head turned to the sky. All the others were inside, waiting anxiously for Raine and the Flanoir doctor to come out of the dwarf's room and give their verdict.

He, however, had many things to think of, so he had retired and stepped outside.

But the moon wasn't allowing him to think. That night, too, the moon had been round and full, so he thought about it, and that night reminded him of many, many other things... some he didn't want to remember, some that he loved as much as they hurt, and a few others that made him smile.

"What are you doing out there?"

He half turned around to see the woman that had been bothering his thoughts standing at the doorway, half covering herself with a travel-worn mantle.

"Keeping guard, of course," he grinned, "Just in case any evil angels try to come finish their master's work."

She laughed just once. "We can't spare the doctors right now, so don't expect any help tomorrow if you hurt!"

"Ah, your lack of trust wound my heart," he answered with a fake sigh. "So... any news on the old man?"

"Altessa?" she shook her head. "Nothing yet."

"Ah..." he turned around once more and suppressed a sigh. "Bah, don't know what you're worrying about. That guy's way too stubborn to die."

He almost jumped, surprised, when she sat down next to him. Ninja training, he though, she was supposed to be silent.

"Don't you worry?" the girl asked, clutching the mantle close to her. "Not only about Altessa... I mean... all that happened in just a few hours..."

"Yeah, well..." he stopped, unsure of what to say. He had known this was coming, and yet... "What will be will be, right? Can't change the flow of things."

Sheena frowned. "That's too pessimistic, coming from you."

"Y'think? Well, I guess that being the Chosen you get used to thinking like that," he was being too serious, it seemed to him, so he turned and grinned. "And being the Chosen, what will be will be good, of course!"

"...if you had to go through the same Colette did?"

He forced his grin to stay plastered on his face. She was being too serious. "The same applies."

"Mmmh..." the girl turned her eyes to the sky and said nothing. He respected that silence and stared ahead, trying to think of what he had wanted to think way before, when he first stepped outside and before he noticed the full moon.

This second try, however, was interrupted when Sheena spoke once more, still looking at the sky. "There was a full moon too, the night we found the Otherworldly Gate."

"...really?" he asked, trying to make his tone as though he was bored. In reality he could've sworn his heart had skipped a beat when he realized that, when seeing the moon, she had thought of the same thing he had.

"Yeah," she continued, ignorant of his inner reaction, "I think I remember looking at it from the Rehaird before we landed."

"I don't think I noticed."

"You?" she turned to him and arched an eyebrow, a rather mocking smile on her face. "I would've thought you, of all people, would've noticed a full moon."

Zelos grinned. "Well, only when I have a pretty girl close..."

Sheena rolled her eyes. "Had to be..."

"Have I mentioned how lovely your skin looks under the moon?"

"That line's so..."

"Perhaps you should strip, I'm sure you'd look stunning."

The ninja punched him in the upper arm and he rubbed the area with a pained smirk.

"You know, girls in Meltokio don't hit that strongly..."

"Ah, so they hit now?"

"Of course," he nodded, "It's a natural tradition to punch the man you like."

"Well, in Mizuho it's a tradition to punch any idiot who makes passes at the girls."

"Aaaand that's the beauty of mistranslation!" the Chosen exclaimed happily, and much to his credit she laughed a little.

"...so what about it, then?"

"What about what?" she answered.

"The moon and that."

"Ah, yeah..." she looked aside, first at her feet and then up at the sky again. He though she was blushing. "I just remembered... you know? About that night."

"Mmh?"

"Yes... the thing with Kuchinawa and all that... remember?"

"Yes?."

"Well," again, she looked to her feet and then forced herself to look at him, obviously uncomfortable. "I didn't really thank you."

She had been forced by Raine and Colette to utter a very forced 'thanks', he remembered.

The most logical and sensitive thing to do would've been to tell her not to worry, that it wasn't necessary and that he understood. The most Zelos thing to do, of course, was to grin and say

"And you didn't give me my kiss either! Would you like to make up for that now?"

She hit him again.

"And there's your love for me speaking again..."

"Idiot! Here I'm trying to be sensitive and you...!"

"Yes, yes," he laughed, once more rubbing his arm. He'd have a bruise in the morning. She got up. "What, you're leaving already?"

"You should get some sleep, too," she answered. "Goddess knows what we'll end up doing tomorrow."

"Yeah, I guess..." he raised and dusted his pants off. "Sheena?" he called and turned to see her peeking out of the door, already on her way in.

"Yes?"

"...you're welcome."

The girl laughed. "I still haven't thanked you, you stupid Chosen."

"Aaah, fine, fine..." he followed her inside and walked to the room he had been assigned to. He hadn't gotten much chance to think, but his path was now rather clear in his mind.

She hadn't thanked him yet, but she would soon, he was sure. Because he had never believed in salvation, but starting tomorrow he would have some salvation to do.

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**Notes:** Short o-dai, late o-dai, I've been having some problems and so I can't promise much about updates, but I'll try.

And I liked how this turned out in the end. It was _so_ angsty when I first wrote it – set during the Tower of Salvation scenes and all that, then I decided to change it to the Otherworldly Gate and then it wrote itself... light fluff, I guess. I hope you people enjoyed it too, and thank you all so much for the reviews for the last chapter!

See you next,

_WDR_

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_#13 – Again_

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	13. Normal 13 Again ¨¨Aratana¨¨

**Disclaimer:** All appearing characters and places belong to Namco unless otherwise specified.

The O-dai themes belong to the Zeroshii-Wa, at http/deburu98249.jog. but written correctly. If you visit, don't steal!

**Setting: **Post-game, about two months after the Rode Ride Tour.

**Warnings: **Good Lord, what do you mean, this has an actual plot? _And it's like 16 pages long?_ Visit the restroom and get some water. Since when O-dai became so long? Anyway, real warnings: Zelos talks about women's bodies, some violence, some half-nudity, some references to the Rodeo Ride Tour.

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Normal Version,

**#13 – Again**

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"...very well. We will begin now, if you're ready."

"I'm ready... Robert," Sheena answered and snickered at the way Orochi grimaced at his fake name. "Anything wrong, Robert?"

"Not at all, Danna," the man answered and Sheena smirked again, now at the sound of her own counterfeit name. With the amount of make-up she was wearing, however, it didn't feel alien at all. 'Robert', too, was kind of fitting – Orochi had shed his usual blue attire and had donned an elegant dark-blue coat with gray pants and had tied his hair in a ponytail that fell down his shoulders.

"Then let's get going. We don't want to be late," she picked up her skirt and waited for Orochi to leave the carriage and help her down. The sun was shining lazily over their heads and a soft breeze blew through her hair. Not far from where they had left their carriage they could see a large congregation of people already sitting within the limits of a spacious garden.

Today was a special day for all of Meltokio. After a life of isolation Seles Wilder had finally been released from the abbey where she was kept and was about to join the ranks of the Meltokio nobility. Today a special river-side party would be thrown in her honor.

Not two days ago, however, Mizuho had received a report: there would be an attempt of sorts during the party. The target wasn't clear but few people amongst the guest would be important enough to be in actual danger: his Highness the King and his daughter Princess Hilda, the ex-Chosen of Mana, Zelos Wilder and his sister, Seles Wilder and, finally, the newly-appointed Pope of the Church of Martel.

In a hurry the elders at Mizuho, ex-chief Igaguri included, had decided to send to the gathering a few ninja directed by two of their most able agents; Sheena and Orochi. While they would be dressed as two noble siblings attending the party the rest of their team had already infiltrated into the party dressed as servants.

This was Sheena's first infiltration mission in a long while – ever since she had returned from her trip along with the redhead ex-Chosen she had been sent on a diplomatic mission to Sylvarant, so for almost two months now she hadn't been able to test her combat abilities in a while. To say she was nervous would be a lie, but she wasn't feeling completely sure of herself either.

It wasn't, though, that she doubted her skill – they had proven themselves more than useful during all of her travels and she was conscious enough of how much she had grown, too.

It was all because of the dress.

How was she expected to fight wearing that crinoline-lined, lacy and stuffy skirt? Oh, and high heels. She didn't trust herself to be able to walk correctly right now, forget about fighting.

As if reading her mind, Orochi patted her arm. "Don't forget about the ribbon," he whispered.

"Yeah, how could I?" Sheena murmured back, forcing herself to grin as they walked into the garden. A baby-blue ribbon was tied behind her back in a bow – smaller than the one she usually wore with her Mizuho attire, but pretty nonetheless. When pulled, however, that ribbon would allow her to fight hand-to-hand as if the dress didn't exist at all.

"Robert and Danna D'Leir," Orochi told one of the servants by the gate. The man quickly checked his list before allowing them in with a courteous smile.

"Was it Kazuo back there?"

"Yes. It was hard to get one of ours at the gate, but at least we'll get some control over the guests."

The pair walked closer to the river and looked around, nodding and smiling to whoever greeted them. Given they were at the moment fake nobles it was surprising the amount of people that pretended to know them – after a few minutes they found themselves assuring an old lady that Yes, their mother was doing fine, and of course they would remember to tell her about the tea-party next weekend. Orochi was forced to talk about the 'good old days' with some gentleman he had never met before and Sheena thanked some woman for music lessons she had never taken.

"How are we supposed to keep an eye on the possible victims if we have to talk with every single person?" Sheena muttered to her 'brother' while waving to a group of girls around her age. "I'll be there in a jiffy!" she called to them.

"Perhaps we ought to separate..." Orochi replied, "Find the rest of our people. Two stick to the Princess and His Majesty, two stick with the Chosen and Lady Seles and we find the new Pope."

"You think he'll be the one, then...?" Sheena knew perfectly well that, of all the people her grandfather had sent, the two of them were the most capable ones. It didn't make much sense to keep all their strength in the same place unless they knew for certain who the victim once.

The man nodded. "There is no reason for the King and the Princess to be targeted right now. The Chosen One, and his sister as well, have proven time and again that they can defend themselves. The new Pope, however... he has caused too much controversy since his appointment and it's common knowledge that he has enemies."

"I see... let's set about finding him, though."

The river was crossed by a small wooden bridge, painted in white and adorned with pink and red roses. Not everyone was allowed to go through it though – the other side was reserved for people who were all too important; the stars of the party and the upper-class nobility alone.

Mizuho had, of course, managed to get one of their people to guard that second gate as well, so crossing should have been such a trouble – but just as they were half-way someone took Sheena's arms and pulled back.

"H-hey!" she squealed, almost losing her balance.

"Sh – Danna!"

She looked up and was greeted by a face she hadn't seen for the past two months, a face she had to admit she had missed because she had gotten too used to seeing as a part of her everyday life.

Zelos Wilder smiled mockingly at her, her arm still in his hand. "We meet again," he said, "And again you fall for me. Such is life!"

Well, she hadn't missed his personality _that_ much, so she forced herself not to slap his arm and smiled instead. "Chosen One! What – a – pleasure!" Sheena squeaked, her best imitation of the Meltokio fan-club, "Surely you remember my brother Robert?" she quickly added and pointed towards Orochi, ignoring the redhead's slightly confused expression.

Thankfully, ever since the two worlds had united Zelos had become rather familiar with Mizuho's methods (which is to say he had heard a lot of rumors) and caught up quickly. "Aaaaah yeeeeees, Roooobert! How's everything been, uh? Eh... your... father still into, eh, that thing?"

"Yes, he, uh, enjoys it very much, Chosen," Orochi managed to smile.

"Ain't that great! It's, uh, good to hear he's doing well, at his age and all!" Zelos laughed and then added, in the same conversational voice that however came out rather honest. "I... didn't expect to see you two today."

Sheena stole a look at her 'brother', who nodded. Orochi was right – Zelos was able to defend himself, and he would also be able to take them right next to the King and the Pope.

So she, too, answered in the same conversational code. "We couldn't possibly miss meeting the new Pope, could we?"

"The new Pope, eh..." Zelos mused, "Good enough reason... what say you I introduce you?"

"We would be very thankful, Chosen," 'Robert' almost bowed but caught himself in the last instant.

The ex-Chosen flicked his braid back and grinned. "No problem. Just follow me."

He lead them across the bridge and into the VIP zone with ease, the three nodding and waving at the people they met on the way. Not far from them a small orchestra started playing a slow yet cheerful melody.

Even though the two ninja had seen photographs before the new Pope's youth surprised them all the same. With rather messy brown hair (not messy, Sheena decided – more like unkempt) and fancy white clothes that looked awkward on him the Church's head didn't look to be older than Zelos.

The redhead in question raised an arm and called, "Yo, Sig!"

The Pope interrupted the speech he was giving a young noble and turned around, smiling as soon as he caught sight of the ex-Chosen and walking towards them while the other youth ran away, looking rather relieved.

"Zelos! Well, and here I thought you'd avoid me today," 'Sig' greeted them effusively shaking Zelos' hand.

"A-heheheheh, why would I, now?"

"Because you know that if our debate continues, you'd end up losing..."

"...debate?" Orochi asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Nothing that would interest you," Zelos was quick to say but the other man waved a hand, dismissively.

"The Chosen and I were discussing a few days ago about how necessary it is to make Martel look sexy in the new Holy Scriptures."

The two ninja stared at the two men without saying much. Sheena finally broke the silence, "A-ha-ha-hah, Zelos you little...!"

"It wasn't me this time! I said she needs to look motherly, he's the one who...!"

Orochi interrupted, dead serious as always. "Chosen, am I right to believe His Holiness was selected by you?"

"Er – yeah, well, I kinda did have to – " Zelos glared at the two and then turned to the Pope. "Sigrid, these are two, uh, friends of mine. Robert and..."

"Danna," Sheena provided, seeing Zelos hadn't heard her name yet, and offered her hand. "Robert and Danna D'Leir."

"A pleasure," Sigrid bowed hid head and took her hand. "Friends of the Chosen are always my friends."

Sheena was relieved to see none of Zelos' lecherous tones could be found in the man's voice. While the Church of Martel didn't frown upon priest's marriage it was never comfortable to be hit on by a cleric.

"Yeah, yeah!" Zelos grinned, loud as usual, "These two are _fans_ of your ideas, let me tell you!"

The two 'nobles' tried not to look at each other. They had barely read the new Pope's recently-published gospel and Zelos was announcing them as 'fans'?

"Really?" Sigrid's eyes lit up.

"Yep," Zelos nodded, serious, "Specially Robert here. Loves religion, is really interested in that theory of yours... the one about the evolution of rational thought and the use of mana...?"

"Really!"

"Yep," Zelos now patted Orochi's back, "So whaddaya say you discuss all you want with Robert? Meanwhile, Anna and I..."

"It's 'Danna'."

"...can have a little dance, yes? See ya!"

Before Sheena (or Orochi) could complain she was dragged away by the Chosen, who walked straight towards the small orchestra, his usual grin never leaving his face. Sheena tried to look back but the only thing she was able to see before almost tripping over her heels was Sigrid talking _very_ animatedly while Orochi nodded and nodded.

Once they had reached the small clearing over which a few couples were dancing already Zelos stopped and raised an arm. Immediately enough the music stopped along with the couples – he still retained most of his power, Sheena guessed. Zelos commanded the orchestra something that she really didn't pay much attention to – instead she chose to quickly examine what the man was wearing. Much to her chagrin she discovered he had left his sword behind and wasn't wearing an outfit that looked easy to fight with.

Then again, she guessed, why would he bring sword and shield to a social meeting? She had hoped, however...

At this point she was surprised to find one of Zelos' hands at her waist while the other gripped her own tightly. A lively waltz began playing and Zelos started to move, setting the pace. While Sheena had been taught to dance correctly as part of her infiltration training she quickly noticed that high heels made everything rather different and thus found herself moving rather clumsily at first to the point of actually stepping onto Zelos' feet a few times.

"Ouch – be careful, would you?" he whined.

"It's – it's not as if I wanted to dance, you stupid Chosen!" she snapped back. "I'm – I'm only doing this because you dragged me, got it?"

"Yeah, yeah – ouch! You weren't so bad during that ball back with the others..."

"My heels weren't so stupidly high that time," she growled. "And if you try to pull the same stunt..."

The redheaded laughed his dirtiest laugh possible. "Most unfortunately what you're wearing now isn't as grope-able as that other number..."

Sheena bit her lip and stepped onto him with as much strength as possible. Zelos grimaced and paled slightly but didn't stop the dance.

"That'll teach you..."

"...is that how you greet me after an eternity of not seeing me?" Zelos sighed and turned her around (thankfully, she had been ready for the twirl), "You're so cold."

"It was two months, not an eternity."

"Two long months without my favorite girl..." he shook his head. "It's the same."

"You should know by now your lines don't work on everyone."

Zelos laughed softly. "It wasn't a line, though," and twirled her again, caught her back into his arms and twirled her out once more. "Doing better now."

"...I'm getting the hang of these shoes..." she muttered and willed her face not to redden.

"So..." once the song was over Zelos once more started, his voice a little drowned by the sound of the people clapping, "You and Orochi wouldn't visit just for the kicks of the party... well, I wouldn't mind if you did, but Orochi?"

"Anything against him?"

"Oh no, Robert is my friend you know! But I still don't think you came for the party."

She nodded and waited for the music to start again to explain the ex-Chosen about the information Mizuho had received.

"I see..." dancing, it seemed, came almost natural to Zelos, as he was able to stare into the distance and think for some seconds without stopping at all. "So it's Sigrid, the King and Hilda or Seles and me," he grimaced, "What have I done to make people so angry, anyway?"

"I don't know. Perhaps they're angry you hit on their sisters."

"I'm not _that_ bad...!" Zelos exclaimed, "If I had known 'bout this I would've brought my sword or something."

"You've got your magic, don't you?"

"Yeah, and so does Seles, but we can't very well use it at close range... and Sig's not much of a fighter."

"Yes, I noticed. How can he be Pope if he's so young, anyway?"

He grinned. "I picked him, that's why. With what happened with the last one and what not the King allowed me to."

"Ooh, I see," she frowned. "So you went and picked some old buddy of yours then?"

"No. Well, yes. Kinda," he smiled, "I met Sig when I was studying you know, all Chosen-ly things and stuff... he was the only one who would have a drink (well, a lot of drinks) with me every now and then and the only one who didn't disapprove of my hunnies..."

"So a pervert like you, then!"

"Not really! Always more interested in books. He showed me a few, too..." Zelos grinned, "Books with pretty big pictures. Books with pretty boob pictures... ouch! Thought you said you were getting the hang of the heels?"

"Who said that was an accident?"

The redheaded stuck his tongue at her before continuing. "Anyway, he wants to make Martel look all girlie and probably with little clothes and I want to make her motherly 'cause... 'cause I don't want the faithful wishing they could do their Goddess."

"Must you be so crude about it?"

"See? That's what I'm trying to stop! But he insists..." he shook his head. "The real reason I picked him is that he's got pretty progressive ideas. Always has. That's why I stopped getting along with him..."

Sheena cocked her head. "Because of his ideas?"

Zelos nodded slightly. "I hated half-elves. He insisted in them being equal to us."

"I see..."

"Stuff from the past, now!"

Sheena thought for a little while. The song ended and a new one started. She didn't know if she was really having fun dancing with Zelos or if she just needed to talk, but she allowed him to once more sweep her into the music.

"Why don't you ask Lloyd? About the representation of Martel, I mean," she finally said and when she felt him tense up at the mention of their friend she regretted it a little. Zelos and Lloyd hadn't parted in the best circumstances (not that the twin-swordsman had noticed much), but what was done was done and she carried it on. "He saw the Goddess once, remember? Maybe he can help you."

A muttered "...yeah," was Zelos' only reply.

She kept quiet for a few more seconds. "You didn't even say goodbye to him last time we met."

"...I wasn't really in the mood," he twirled her out and twirled her in, stepped backwards and kept dancing.

"I noticed," she half-snarled, remembering their little argument, "But he thought you were angry at him."

"Who says I wasn't?"

"You could've tried to be civil!"

He laughed with a little bitterness embedded in, "If he had tried talking to me..."

"What?" she snapped, defiant.

"I would've punched him," Zelos replied, nonchalant as ever.

"What?" she started, almost stopping their dance, "Just because of ...?"

"Because of...?"

"...nothing," she said and looked down, not able to stop her blush this time. Now she did regret having brought such a theme up.

But Zelos continued. "No, no, continue!"

"Why – why should I? It's stupid!"

"It's romantic!"

"No it's not," she groaned and concentrated on dancing. The ex-Chosen laughed as the song ended and made a little bow.

"Very well, I'll just have to get it out some other time, my Lady. Now... I think I want to warn Seles, if you don't mind?"

She shook her head as they left the dance-zone. "I'll return with uh, Robert, and see if I can get close to the King."

Zelos nodded and once more bowed a little, taking her hand in his, and then left towards the group of young noble-girls in where Seles' pink hair could be seen. Sheena found herself blushing slightly at his courtly manneras and, after reminding herself that they were only a custom amidst the Meltokian nobles and then walked towards the place where Orochi was still nodding at the Pope's speech.

Much to the young holy man's credit though, the ninja seemed genuinely interested.

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"What it is, Brother?"

Zelos grinned broadly and sincerely. Seles had finally agreed to stop calling him 'Chosen', and that made life a little bit better. 'Only because such title doesn't exist anymore!', the girl hadreplied quickly when he had first commented on it, but he knew well enough there were plenty of other reasons.

"Well, I just couldn't help but notice the amount of pretty girls that surround my lovely sister, and what kind of brother would I be if I didn't introduce myself?"

A few girls giggled, a few others (Seles included) raised an eyebrow and smiled as if saying 'Oh, really.'

The ex-Chosen waved a hand up and down, still smiling. "Yeah, anyway, there's a pair of friends I want you to say hello to, Seles, so if your darling friends will excuse me, I'll have to steal you away now..."

The girl sighed. "I've told you a few times, Brother, I'm not interested in meeting any of your... female friends, and I know well enough that none of the Unification Heroes are attending."

'Unification Heroes', the title their little band had acquired. Lloyd and Colette were lucky no one really knew what the 'Heroes' were supposed to look like or they wouldn't be able to do much work at all.

"C'mooon, I promise you it won't be bad at all!" Zelos whined and tugged at the girl's sleeve, which made some of the people wonder who was really the older sibling.

"Fine, fine, if it'll stop your bothering!" she finally exclaimed and got up from the mantle they had been sitting, dusted her skirt and followed Zelos. "Where is this friend of yours, Brother...?"

"Ooover there, the two that are talking with Sig?"

"You just had to introduce that lecherous excuse for a..." Seles stopped herself as recognition kicked in and then exclaimed "The witch!"

"Sssssssh!" Zelos pleaded almost immediately, "Be quiet! And how many times do I have to ask you not to call her that?"

Seles glared at him. "What were you thinking, bringing her to this place!"

"She came on her own! And why are you so angry? We owe her our lives, you know..."

Seles huffed and looked away. He sighed – hehad methis share of females and yet his sister retained the crown as Pride Queen.

"She – she disappeared immediately afterwards and then appears at my ball? She can't do that and expect me to accept her just like that!"

"You can't blame her for that, she was sent on a diplomatic mission..." Zelos muttered back, although he wasn't really happy about her disappearance either. "And she's not here to dance. Listen..."

As quickly as he could, and making sure no one else could hear, he explained the situation to the girl, whose expression went from prideful anger to a more serious face.

"I see... so you think Sigrid will be targeted then?"

"Not sure, but they did ask for him..."

The girl huffed. "Very well. What shall we do now? Two people will not be enough if they have multiple targets."

"I don't think they're alone. Wouldn't be surprised if half the waiters were actually from Mizuho... look," he took Seles' shoulder, "I want you to go and stick next to Sheena, got it? Don't make that look, I don't care if you don't get along with her – you haven't even tried! – you will go with her and stick there. I'm not risking anything."

"I – I can protect myself well enough, Chosen!"

"You didn't bring your weapons, and neither did I. Magic's only good at a distance and these people won't be fighting with bows."

Seles gritted her teeth but, upon seeing her brother's serious expression, she forced herself to quiet. "...very well. I'll do as you wish."

Zelos sighed to himself. "Good. You stick with them and I'll go and see if someone can bring me my sword. Now go."

She nodded and turned. He could see her greeting Sheena courteously and the ninja returned the greeting with as much grace. He turned aside and wondered where his footmen had gone to – he couldn't risk leaving the party to go search for his weapons. Ignoring the people around him he strode quickly towards the bridge, in hopes some of the people there had seen his footmen.

At middle-walk, however, a hand placed delicately on his arm stopped him for just enough to see Princess Hilda smiling at him from under a white parasol.

"Chosen! You wouldn't be thinking of leaving the party, would you?"

He forced a smile (which wasn't hard for him to do) and stopped. "Of course not, your Highness! How could I leave my own sister's presentation?"

The girl laughed softly. "I wish I could've scolded my father like this. He left already."

The Chosen sighed inwards, relieved. One less target to protect. "Did he? Headache or something?"

"He said there was nothing for him to do," she shrugged, "I guess he was right. Most people here are much younger than him."

"Hah! So the old man was bored..."

"So it seems," Hilda suddenly offered her hand, "But I don't think that's the case with you, Chosen? I think I saw you dancing just a few minutes ago."

Zelos was quick to take the Princess' hand softly into his. "An old friend of mine, your Highness."

"I think I recognized her..."

Zelos almost started. If Hilda had recognized Sheena then perhaps he ought to tell her about what was going on and have her leave the place quietly and as soon as possible. Being the Princess no one would be able to argue.

But the girl shook her head. "I must be imagining things. Would you honor me with a piece, Chosen?"

He didn't have time to dance right now, but - "The honor will be mine as always," not for the first time he cursed noble etiquette and his being used to agreeing with girls but none of these was reflected on his face as he lead the girl towards the orchestra.

And then the song that was currently stopped suddenly in a discordant clash as two men toppled onto the musicians, yelling at each other, a third one quickly joining the fight.

Soon a few of the waiters were trying to restrain the men but it just didn't seem to be enough.

"He'started it!" one of the men yelled.

"Mah'ss I did! He... he 'nsulted my sister!"

Hilda scrunched her nose in distaste. "I can't believe they could drink so much so early in the afternoon! And in a social gathering of this level, too!"

The Chosen was about to say something when he noticed that most people had gathered around the dancing area, curious about the fight. Even Sigrid, followed by Orochi, was walking towards the fight and waving at him to join.

There was something off, Zelos thought as he looked around and noticed they were rather alone. It was as if the fighters were trying to attract as much attention as possible; interrupting the orchestra and attacking each other with alcohol bottles, musical instruments and basically anything they could get their hands onto...

Also, he had been around many, many drunks. He knew what they sounded like and these two were faking.So he pushed the Princess to the ground and spun to his right just in time to dodge a knife, take the attackers arm and send him flying away from the Hilda, who had probably realized what was going on because she wasn't complaining.

The attacker (a man who lookedjusta littleolder than him) spun around and once more launched himself against the Chosen, knife first. Zelos would've sidestepped if it wasn't for Hilda, who was still on the floor. Bracing himself he caught his assailant, knife-hand with his right and the man's shoulder with his left.

"So... who you're after, boy?" Zelos managed to ask through gritted teeth. The boy obviously had no fighting experience but had his share of strength. Behind him he heard a scream – a girl. Either the public had finally realized what was going on or Seles and Sheena had been attacked too.

In front, the man snarled and tried to free the knife. "You think you can just forget about us and...!"

"I... don't think we've ever met, actually..." Zelos spat back and smiled.. The 'boy' was obviously not too bright, so if he could only keep him angry enough then he wouldn't realize he could actually attack without the knife. "Care to tell me your name?"

"As if some noble would care about that..."

Oh, man, Zelos thought, people from the slums. Ever since the world had been united many Sylvarantians had moved to Meltokio in hopes of a better life...

...and what they found were the slums.

He didn't want to hurt the boy but he didn't have much chance. He quickly turned his head to see a rather scared Hilda was beingtaken away by two men dressed as waiters but whose face didn't look familiar.

"Oh man..." he sighed and, feeling a little sorry, let go of the man's shoulder and punched him. The attacker stumbled back, dazzled and the ex-Chosen used this time to quickly run to the Princess' side.

"Hilda!"

"Chosen!" one of the men answered before the girl could even open her mouth. "We're here on Igaguri's name! Allow us to escort her to safety."

"What..." Zelos arched an eyebrow, "How can I be sure of..."

A shrill shout, Sheena,interrupted him, however. "Behind you, idiot!"

Of course. He couldn't expect the man to be dazzled for so long.He had been ready though, and knew exactly what trick to play. He turned around, punched the man once and then placed his left arm to the attacker's chest and felt mana running through his veins as he yelled "_Lightning Sword!_"

He had tried to do magical attacks without a sword once before. The result hadn't been pretty, and this time it wasn't much better. The two men cried out in pain and the attacker fell down to the earth in what the ex-Chosenhopedwas unconsciousness.

"What happened to the time when being a Chosen meant people didn't try to kill you?" Zelos whined and rubbed his arm, which stung a whole lot. He didn't think he would be able to use it for a few minutes. "Oh yeah, they never existed to begin with."

"_Absolute!_"

"_Pyre... Seal!_"

"...Seles!" rushing towards the place where his sister and Sheena were fighting, he decided he'd have to believe in what the men escorting the Princess said – no one outside of Mizuho knew what or who 'Igaguri' was, anyway, so they were probably being truthful.

The party-clearing, however, was almost empty by now. Orochi, Sigrid and the Princess were nowhere to be seen now,Sheena was keeping guard while his sister knocked a second man with one of her spells. Besides the man he had knocked out there were three other lying close to the girls and yet another pair next to the dancing area, where a few 'waiters' (all from Mizuho, he guessed) had tied up the ones who had started the fight, which by now was clear had been planned as a distraction.

"Seles!" he called, "Are you fine?"

The pink-haired girl huffed in an effort to hide she was panting. "I managed to keep myself at a distance, unlike someone else."

"Yeah, yeah..." he rubbed his left arm again and half-hid a sigh.He still didn't feel like he could move it but was relieved to find his sister unharmed."How 'bout you, Sheena?"

"No problems here," the ninja answered, "I saw Orochi leave just when you were finishing yours off."

"Where did he go, anyway...? I hope Sig's alright."

"Most unfortunately, people like him tend to stay alive the longest."

Zelos forced a smile while Sheena stifled her laughter. "Aaah, my darling sister shows her charms..." the ex-Chosen was saying when he heard some shifting behind him.

He turned around carelessly only to see the man he had though unconscious or even dead because of Sheena's attack was lunging at him, short sword ready.

"Oh shi..." thought Zelos as he dropped to the floor and tried to raise his arms in an effort to protect himself – it was too late now to try and stop the attack as he had done before – but a sharp, sharp pain reminded him of the inconveniences of using magical attack without a conductor such as a sword. His left arm fell useless to his side and the right one shot up,all too late.

But the attack never arrived. He looked up to see Sheena's figure, dressed up in that ridiculously unfittingpuffy dress, holding the man's sword arm with her left hand and the other with her right.

"...the... ribbon...!" she called at him, obviously having a hard time keeping the man in control.

"...what?" was his answer. Brilliant.

"...pull... the ribbon! The ribbon, you stupid...!"

He needed no more. The redhead took the pale-blue ribbon with his right hand and pulled with all of his strength. To his marvel (and much delight) the entire skirt fell down and pooled around the ninja, revealing a pair of long white legs covered only by a pair of very short pants who happened to be just in front of his face.

Zelos sat back in wonder, knowing fully this wasn't the time to ogle at a girl's butt, but he couldn't really help staring as the girl delivered a round kick to the attacker's head.

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"...here, Sheena," Orochi handled the girl a small bundle without ever looking down – whether he wanted to or not was never known. "You left it in the carriage."

"I couldn't very well be carrying it around the party," the black-haired girl replied and reached into the bad, taking out a pair of black pants. "Has anything been done...?"

The ninja nodded. "The responsible are being held captive for interrogation and His Highness mentioned something about carrying out an investigation to make sure nothing like this happens again, but nothing is definite yet."

Sheena nodded. "And the attackers...?"

"Minor injuries. The one you kicked will be missing a tooth or two, however," she tried not to smile at that, "But nothing serious. Right now the Pope is talking with the King about the problem with the slums."

"They'll finally do something?"

Orochi nodded. "It's sad that measures are only taken when the situation gets out of hand, but at least they'll try now."

Once more she nodded. "Zelos didn't look happy about things... he'll help."

"Yes. About that, Sheena..." the ninja frowned. "Please get dressed."

"What does that..."

"Just get dressed, Sheena," Orochi insisted.

Sheena arched an eyebrow and looked around.

Zelos was sitting just behind them, looking at her as if she were the most interesting thing ever.

"Oh," she said.

Orochi half-smiled and turned towards the redhead. "Chosen," he bowed a little, "Lady Seles has arrived safely at your home, and I've been asked to inform you that your presence is, for the moment, not required by His Highness the King."

Zelos nodded.

"I, however, shall be leaving," he turned towards the girl, "Sheena, don't be... try not to be late."

With that, Orochi left the two relatively alone – a few more Mizuho natives were still in the area along with some Meltokian curious.

She walked to where the ex-Chosen was sitting and he, upon seeing the pants in her hands, frowned.

"Do you really need those?"

She blushed slightly and scrunched her nose a little. "Of course I do! You – this was only for a mission, you can expect me to walk around like this once it's over."

"Why not? They do wonders!" she didn't answer. "You should consider using them daily, in fact."

Sheena groaned and shook her hand at him. "Turn around."

"What for?"

"So I can get dressed, that's what for."

For once Zelos looked genuinely confused. "You're just putting some pants over another pair of pants. Why should I turn around for?"

"I'm telling you to!"

"And I'm telling you you don't need those extra pants! It's not as if I hadn't seen you in undies before..."

She hit him over the head and quickly dressed while he was rubbing his head. She knew she looked silly now, with black ninja-garb and a fancy, colorful corset and gloves.

"Aaah..." the ex-Chosen complained, "I was trying to compliment you and all..."

"What kind of compliment was that!"

"A truthful one?"

Sheena sighed. She hadn't thought the inner-pants to be so short when she chose them back at Mizuho. Zelos, however, had managed to make her feel as though they were a few inches smaller. Of course, of all possible scenarios she hadn't thought Zelos would be the one to pull at the ribbon, and she hadn't thought her butt would be level to his face when it happened. "That's what I get for saving you," she muttered.

Zelos grinned broadly. "What, you saying you want some thanks then? I know, how about a kiss or two?"

"Why would I want that, idiot!"

"Now, don't deny it," the redhead laughed, "You must have been _horrified_ when you saw me in danger!"

She had been – really, really scared. Not that she would accept it. "As if... your sister's right. People like you are the last to die."

Zelos shook his head and laughed once more. "I'm lucky you two don't get along. Don't want to imagine what it would be like if you did," in what seemed an unconscious movement he rubbed his left arm.

"...does it still hurt?"

"Mmh? Nah, not anymore," he demonstrated so by waving his arm around and then, suddenly, placing it on one of her shoulders and bringing her to sit down next to him. "See?"

"...yeah," she answered, looking away.

"Aw, what'cha being all shy for? Not two months ago we were sleeping together in the open!"

"What?.! You – you idiot Chosen! Don't put it like that, pervert!"

Zelos laughed, "Heheheh," then hesitated for an instant, "Seems I'm in your doubt. Again."

Sheena snorted, amused. "Really, for the Chosen One to be saved by a girl _two_ times now...!"

"Hey, it's not my fault. Besides, how am I supposed to repay you if you don't ever get into trouble?"

The two laughed a little and somewhere within her chest Sheena knew that after two months of not even hearing about him she had missed the redhead. She suddenly felt a little like the first day after their trip, when she had woken up alone in her room – just a little lonely, just a little sad.

But when she turned around there he was, smiling as always and playing with his hair while waiting for an answer, which she would've gladly given him if it wasn't because she abruptly realized that she had forgotten what they were talking about.

So she said the first thing she could. "I think I'd like to learn to dance."

He raised an eyebrow, perhaps wondering what had happened with the topic but soon enough he flashed his best smile at her.

"What, feeling bad about trying to destroy my beautiful feet before?" he brushed his hair back, "Well, since you insist in not getting into dangers I can save you from, let's say I teach you? Don't worry, however. In all my life there hasn't been a girl I haven't been able to teach. So just you wait..."

She knew it was all an excuse – for him and for her – but if anyone asked, she didn't care.

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**Notes:** OMG, so how did this get so long? Answer – I don't know. It wrote itself. In parts, since I have about five hours of free time a week. Therefore it might seem fragmented – it has a kind of plot-esque string that binds it together but it doesn't really achieve the unity of impression that a one-shot should have. I should've checked it (misspelling, grammar, unity) but decided against it since that would add another week and I'd rather move on. So do forgive the bad quality...

...however, even if just for the fact that it came out rather naturally, I think I like this one. It has some kind of semi-plot and all. And for some reason my muse wants to pair Orochi and Seles, but I refuse. And finally, calling Zelos 'ex-Chosen' at times and 'Chosen' at others had a reason, but I forget what it was.

Now – I never ask of the readers anything but comments and critique, but if anyone would draw for me the scene with Sheena's skirt falling and Zelos' going all OMG, I'd be forever thankful, laugh a lot and just be happy.

Thanks to all who reviewed last chapter. I meant to answer but I just couldn't find time. Thanks also to those who e-mailed kind words... I promise to reply as soon as I can. I hope you enjoyed this stupidly long o-dai!

_WDR_

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_#14 – Blush_

(which makes it difficult. I'd really really appreciate ideas for this o-dai)

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	14. Normal 14 Blush ¨¨Sekimen¨¨

**Disclaimer:** All appearing characters and places belong to Namco unless otherwise specified.

The O-dai themes belong to the Zeroshii-Wa, at http/deburu98249.jog. but written correctly. If you visit, don't steal!

**Setting: **Years after the game, years after RRT.

**Warnings: **Way way shorter than the last one! Beware of _FLUFF_, maturity and prose that might border into poetic-prose at times. Hey, with a name like "Blush"... eh, think of Sean Connery towards the third paragraph. Then stop thinking of him.

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Normal Version,

**#14 – Blush**

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As he got a pair of glasses out of his pocket and smiled, amusedly saying 'Let's see, let's see!', she suddenly wondered – how long had they been together that he had started to need glasses?

She looked down at the reports she was supposed to be checking. To say that he 'needed' glasses made it sound as if he was a blind old man, and this was a complete lie. At twenty-nine Zelos Wilder was still beautiful, if less boyish than when they had first met. His features had somehow changed - as was natural - and gone from hiw fresh charming to a more mature attractiveness.

He was going to be, Sheena Fujibayashi realized, a very handsome old man one day, and she was going to be a very lucky old woman.

Zelos looked up at her and arched an eyebrow. "Anything you wanna say, or are you just staring at my beauty?"

She sneered just a little and rolled her eyes. Glasses, it seemed, didn't modify personality. "I was staring at your glasses, actually."

"_Spectacles_, if you please," Zelos corrected her.

"Since when did you...?"

"Remember I kept getting headaches?"

"Was that because of your eyes?"

The redhead half grimaced, half grinned. "Yep. I need them to read."

Sheena laughed. "I don't think I ever imagined you wearing glasses. Spectacles."

"I couldn't get used to the contact," the man sighed as if that was one of the worst tragedies ever, "And these ruin my image! You wouldn't believe how long it took me to pick these out..."

"Oh, but I would..." she had experienced a few of Zelos' shopping trips. They were as tiring as any of her village's high-rank missions.

"Anyway, this is between you and me," he took a finger to his lips and winked at her. "Secret, yes?"

She sighed. "Yes, yes..."

"Good!" he exclaimed, pushed the spectacles up his nose and continued reading wherever he had left off.

Sheena, however, didn't feel like she would be able to concentrate that easily. It was a far too pleasant noon to be doing paper-work – that's why she had asked to move to the garden. But outside, with the sun falling softly on her skin and the sounds of birds rhythmically chirping somewhere not too far and not too close made concentrating even more difficult.

She looked up from her report to where Zelos was absently pushing a strand of shoulder-length hair behind an ear. He had cut it a few months ago, after much thinking and after deciding that he looked holier with short hair. The reason had made her laugh but it oddly fit him. He had been talking about growing a beard though...

She looked away and into the lush garden of the Wilder estate. How long had they been together that she had shed her fighting attire and even the successor's dark garb and had started wearing simple clothes such as the ones she was wearing now? Not meant for fighting but meant to sit down and be a leader.

How long had they been together that he, too, had started wearing sensible attires instead of bright-pink jackets? How they had changed and yet it had all been so slow, so gradual, that it had taken a silent warm noon to make her notice that she, too, wasn't nineteen anymore but almost twenty-seven.

How long had they been together that she couldn't imagine life without him anymore?

She got up from her chair and stretched her arms behind her back. He, too, looked up and grinned as if he had always known she hadn't been working and had just been waiting for her to rise.

She circled the table on which they had been working and without any warning hugged him into her chest and kissed his cheek. "Don't grow a beard," she said, "It'd make you look evil."

He quickly looked down into the papers he was still holding and she knew he was blushing, which was strange in a man almost thirty and even more so in him. But it wasn't long before he got up, face fresh as a few minutes before, and said nobody could blame them for taking a rest every now and then.

Her answer bears no importance. It was part of their daily life. How long had they been together that such daily life existed... the answer to that, too, was unimportant. Just that the question existed was enough at the time.

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**Notes:** Short, I know, but bear with me. You know how muses are – she didn't accept anything different at all.

I dunno how IC this could've felt. What with Sheena nearing twenty-seven and Zelos pushing thirty... well, it was a little bit too serious for me, but that's how it came out and how I decided to leave it.

Thanks to all the reviewers from last time! Given how long it was and the non-existent time to spell-check it I'm surprised there weren't more complains, heh. I can only hope this one will be better in that sense, at least...

I hope you enjoyed this O-dai as well. Be sure to drop a line or two if you did! If you didn't, critique is always appreciated, too.

See you soon,

_WDR_

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_#15 – Impression_

(whooo, fifteen already!)

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	15. Normal 15 Impression ¨¨Inshou¨¨

**Disclaimer:** All appearing characters and places belong to Namco unless otherwise specified.

The O-dai themes belong to the Zeroshii-Wa, at http/deburu98249.jog. but written correctly. If you visit, don't steal!

**Setting: **In-game.

**Warnings: **Spoilers! Spoilers ahead! If you haven't reached the Tethe'allan Tower of Salvation for a second time then you should probably stop reading.

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Normal Version,

**#15 – Impression**

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Her first impression had been that of light and therefore that of beauty.

She had been falling – for how long now, she wasn't sure, but light had long ago disappeared and she knew she was still falling only because of how her hair and clothes moved wildly around her body.

And then there it was: light, coming in soft old-gold hues as spring sunrays falling onto the ground just before the sun starts painting the sky in pinks and purples.

The light then changed and became orange and full of tendrils and shadows, as if it was being blocked by something that was altering its coloration.

And then the light called.

"Sheena!" it said, and her eyes, which were just starting to adjust to the new luminosity, finally distinguished the figure that was hiding amidst the light – a redhead she had once thought she knew all too well and that had just proved her very wrong.

And yet there he was, calling her name.

She didn't answer but reached up towards him anyways, and that seemed to be enough: as soon as he realized she was conscious he sped up, golden and orange wings batting furiously and arms outstretched. His hands reached hers and went past 'till she was suddenly submerged in a sea of red hair with his arms holding her close to him and she, too, clung to his neck and stopped caring for a few short seconds while he brusquely changed directions and shot upwards and soon his wings ceased to be the only source of light.

Given he was not really used to flying he landed rather gracefully, or at least didn't trip and fall on top of her. He eased his hold on her waist but allowed his hands to linger on her sash just as her hands, too, left his neck and rested on his arms.

She took a deep breath and then started laughing.

He raised an eyebrow and then frowned. "You just have to ruin the moment, don't you?"

"You stupid Chosen..." she still laughed, "What were you thinking?"

"When I left with Colette, when I tripped this morning, when I stole Lloyd's breakfast, when I dived to save you?"

The girl shook her head. "No," and lightly pulled at one of his wings, "Really, orange and pink? Hasn't anyone ever told you those colors just don't match?"

Zelos looked confused, then raised an eyebrow and prepared to say something before laughing as if he was just giving up.

"Fine, fine," he managed to answer, "Next time I see my local evil overlord I'll ask him to make them purple. Would that be fine with you?"

She snorted, "You're girly enough _without_ wings, idiot."

"Girly? It's not my fault you – "

Someone coughed lightly behind the pair, as if trying to stop the 'argument' without being too impolite about it. Sheena turned around to see Regal standing at the door through which Lloyd and the others had left just before she fell.

"Sheena," said the redhead, smiling as he always did, "I'll have the pleasure of introducing you to Count Bryant. He was about to face two million angels on his own but lucky him, the great Zelos was around..."

"Chosen," the blue-haired ex-prisoner interrupted, "I don't think we have time for this right now."

Zelos pouted at this. "I know," he whined but complained no more. "Sheena, you stay with Regal. You shouldn't find any guards anyway."

"And you?" she asked, just to know.

"Me? Well if everyone's as suicidal as you two then I've got some work to do!" he smiled and took off. A few seconds later all that remained of him was a faint glow of mana sparkles floating in the air.

Sheena looked at her hand. Her fingertips, too, were covered in a soft, slight brilliant substance that remained her of the dust that covered the wings of the butterflies. She shook her head and turned towards Regal.

He nodded at her. "Shall we go? I believe we'll meet the others as we climb and perhaps the Chosen will be in need of some help."

Sheena smiled and nodded as well. "Yes. We can't make him do everything... he'd complain all night long."

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**Notes:** Short again, sorry. Exams and essays got in the way.

Originally this was going to be much much less fluffy. It was even going to have some comedy and stuff! But I just didn't like it, and I had been wanting to write a Sheena-falling-down-is-rescued-by-Wings!Zelos thing, so I decided to indulge my fluff!muse for once and there you have it... artsy, full of colors and some fluff, even. Oh and Regal. Stupid Regal, gets in the way! I liked writing this o-dai even if I'm not completely satisfied with how it turned out.

Anyway, so there you have number fifteen. Thanks to all who reviewed the last one – I forget if I answered or not: as I mentioned, last two weeks are a big gaping hole consisting of midterm exams. I hope you enjoyed this one and I'll be seeing you when spring break is over with...

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_#15 – Dance _

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	16. Normal 16 Dance ¨¨Butoukai¨¨

**Disclaimer:** All appearing characters and places belong to Namco unless otherwise specified.

The O-dai themes belong to the Zeroshii-Wa, but it has closed down now. Ain't that so sad?

"Party Dress" was originally written by Sumino Hirume and is probably now owned by Namco and DNA Comics.

**Setting: **In-game.

**Warnings: **Comments on how males think of the famale body. Notspoilers this time so don't worry about beingspoilered, is that a valid verb anyway?

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Normal Version,

**#16 – Dance**

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Sheena stared at the contents of thepresent and then quickly closed it again and pretended to examine the expensive-looking white box in which the outfit was packed.

It was white, with the seamstress' name written in florid silver letters at the middle and two bands of pastel pink at the right-most corner. It was a box and there wasn't anything else to see.

Next to her Colette seemed in a daze, holding a white dress with red ribbons delicately sewn at the shoulders. The skirt was white and a little too frilly for Sheena's taste, but something told her Colette would look perfect in it.

At the other side of the table Presea, too, was holding up her dress and looking at it as if she wasn't sure what to do with it. As in Colette's attire white was predominant, Presea's number was mainly blue – pale blue, dark blue, rather somber despite of the childish cut.

Raine was examining her own with a far more critical expression. She was also the first to speak, lightly touching the dark blue coat that would cover a knee-length white dress. "Whoever made these clothes wasn't particularly worried about money. The buttons are made out of gold, the fabric is of the best quality possible... and these boots! In Sylvarant I would've never afforded something like this on a teacher's salary."

Colette wasn't that concentrated on the quality, though. "Professor, look! It's so pretty, isn't it? Aaah, I'm so happy!" the blonde hugged the dress.

"...the possibilities of the cloth getting creased are high. I would recommend laying them on top of a solid surface in order to avoid wrinkles."

Colette eeped, let go of the dress and them primly extended it on top of the table and looked at it once more. Then, what Sheena had been fearing came to happen – the angel turned towards her and, in her usual chipper voice, asked "What is yours like, Sheena?"

The ninja had known this question was coming but still didn't know what to say. So she sighed and waved a hand while pushing the box away. "Ah, forget about it. It'll never fit me; I'll just have to get something else."

Presea cocked her head. "Something else?" she repeated, "The dance is scheduled to start in three hours. The chances of finding an appropriate dress that's within our price-range, along with shoes and any other accessories that combine with said dress, coming back and getting the make-up, hair and all details done in time for us to depart towards the ball-room are –"

"Extremely low, yes, I know," Sheena cut the girl off, a little ticked at the fact that she was completely right. "But I don't think it'll fit me..."

Now it was Colette the one that looked confused. "But I thought they had said they had made the dresses to be an exact fit?"

"Yeah, well, I'm not saying it'll be too small or too big..." the ninja tried again. It seemed neither Presea nor Colette understood that it wasn't the size what was the problem, but the attire's personality. "Just that I'll look weird with it."

"Well, _I_ think it might be too small," came Raine's voice from behind. Sheena spun around – to her chagrin, the silver-haired woman had opened the box and was holding out her dress for everyone to see. "Highest quality silk, however."

"That's – that's not – !" the ninja tried to complain but failed. Raine was right, too – it _was_ too short, not in size but in the amount of fabric used. Too short of a skirt, virtually nothing to cover her chest and how was she supposed to wear underwear with that?

"Oooh, it's so pretty Sheena! Look, it even has ribbons!" Colette exclaimed and rushed towards Raine to take a feel at said ribbons. Presea said nothing (she probably understood Sheena's problem by now) and Raine only looked at her and smirked.

She groaned and cursed whoever had designed her gown. Why was Raine's so much more sober, and Colette's so much more innocent? Why was she stuck with the one that looked more like a swimsuit than a ballroom gown?

And given how Raine was looking at her Sheena guessed she wouldn't be able to sit this one out. The older woman looked as if she had suddenly found a life-sized doll to play with.

Three of Zelos' maids walked into the room accompanied by a fourth woman who, they said, would be doing everyone's hair. Sheena sighed and prayed there would be a dark corner she could hide into because she really didn't think she'd feel like dancing.

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Lloyd rushed into the dance hall, eliciting many smirks from a few nobles and a few snarky comments from some of the girls. Not that he listened to them and not that he would've cared if he had. Just as he rushed in Colette rushed out of the crowd to meet him.

"Lloyd, you made it!" she called as he rested his hands on his knees, a little bent after running from Zelos' mansion to the palace and then back to the mansion and then to the ball-room.

"Of... of course... I made... it!" he answered.

Not really noticing he was just getting his wind back the girl took a hold of his hand and dragged him into the crowd. "Look! They've got a table full of small cakes and you can take as many as you want! I think the Professor said they're called canapés..."

"Wait, Colette! Hey – wait – ah, sorry m'am – Colette, you're gonna trip of you're not careful!"

From the back of the hall Zelos watched the two and smirked. Champagne flute in hand he had been talking to the King and princess Hilda for a while but was becoming a little tired of it – the King was a nice chap but not the person you wanted to talk to in a party, and Hilda was... blushing.

Now, women usually blushed a lot around him. But this was a princess and he, supposedly, had just saved her from the clutches of the evil pope. In other words, she was infatuated with him right now – and a princess is not a girl you can play with for a few days and then leave. From the Chosen's point of view much suffering would be avoided if he lost himself into the crowd before the King decided to play matchmaker and leave him alone with the princess.

And Lloyd had given him a perfect opportunity.

"Wasn't that a friend of yours, Chosen?" the King asked, raising an eyebrow at the small ruckus that the twin-swordsman entrance had caused.

"Aaah, it seems so!" he answered, as if he hadn't noticed. "They _really_ don't know how to behave! Wouldn't you say, Highness?"

The King huffed. "It matters not. This party is theirs – and yours too, Chosen."

"But even then! There's this thing called manners, right princess?"

The girl in question startled, blushed a little and attempted a smile. "Ah, yes, of course. Manners are important in this kind of occasions."

Zelos nodded. "Exactly. And what kind of friend would I be if I allow them to look so out of place? Therefore I think it's my duty to find them and make sure they don't do something like that again," he bowed slightly, "So your Majesty, Princess – if you'll excuse me..." before any of the two could say anything the redhead turned around and quickly made his way towards the center of the crowd. Being important had its perks every now and then.

"Well then," he thought to himself, "Find something to do now..." He brushed back a few hairs that had slipped out of place, readjusted his jacket and looked around. He had almost forgotten how dreadful these kinds of parties were – almost. Truth to be told he had just realized how much he enjoyed Lloyd and the other's company, specially compared to the stupid noblemen who were greeting him all around the room.

Hypocrites, all of them, he thought.

"Not that I'm any different," the redhead said within as he greeted back.

For a few minutes he walked around the room without doing nothing in particular – the dancing hadn't started yet so he couldn't occupy his mind on that, he wasn't feeling like talking to any of the old madams, he held no interest in the canapés at the moment and he didn't like to get drunk on champagne. The only option he had left, he guessed, was to find Lloyd and the others or, perhaps, find a pretty girl (or girl_s_) to spend the party with.

His first option proved to be harder than he had thought. There ballroom was large and there were plenty of people, and while at least Lloyd and Colette should've been easier to spot, if the young angel was as hyperactive as she looked before then Martel knew where they were right now, and Sheena was probably hanging around them, too.

After some more walking he had managed to spot Regal (who looked in deep (read: boring) conversation with some old nobles), Raine (who was too busy talking with one of Syback's invited researchers) and Genis and Presea, who were too young for him. The Chosen half-sighed and decided that finding pretty girls would be way easier than finding any of his friends.

His search was over as soon as it began, however. He had only inched close to a table to leave his now-empty champagne flute when he saw a girl standing by a window, staring out into the night. Even in this crowded room she had managed to stand by herself and, he thought, she looked too lonesome for someone invited to a royal ball – what kind of gentleman would leave an obviously-depressed girl alone?

Well that and she had a hell of a fine figure, too, as the girl's very short wine-colored skirt and naked back allowed him to see. He confidently walked 'till he was standing behind her and readied himself to use his smoothest voice possible.

"Why, such a delightful night isn't it? But I'm sure the stars will look pale in comparison to your eyes..."

The girl turned around alowly. And he stared. In the span of a second three things happened – first he was glad to see her face was just as good as her figure. Then he thought something about her was familiar.

The third and last was him almost screaming "Sh-Sheena?.!"

With most of her hair done up in an elegant bun, a delicate silk dress that looked nothing like her usual clothes and a her lips painted in deep burgundy the ninja looked different, to say the least.

Not that he was complaining. He had always thought her attractive during their travels, but to the same degree he thought the Altamira Bunny-girls to be attractive. But now – with no monsters lurking around and no real distractions close by – it seemed to him that she looked not only attractive, but more beautiful than she had ever.

Sheena, however, wasn't aware at all of the thoughts that were crossing the redhead's mind and frowned slightly. "What, trying to make fun of me?" she snapped at him, but without as much energy as she usually had. "Not in the mood, Zelos."

He realized she must've thought his pick-up line had been a joke, but decided against telling her that it he had mistaken her for some random girl. When she glared at him he noticed he was still staring and quickly looked away, feeling his cheeks burn a little.

"Ah, no, I wasn't trying to," he blurted out, grinning as best as he could, "Just that – you know, you looked all alone, so I thought I should... but I'll leave you to your business now, fine? I was searching for Lloyd anyway..." as he said that he stepped back, waving a little at her as if to say goodbye.

Much to his surprise she reached out. "Wait a minute!" she called, "Don't leave me alone!"

"...eh?" he asked, having absolutely nothing better to say. All possible witty lines had suddenly disappeared.

The ninja (who didn't look particularly ninja-ish right now) almost pouted and he thought that, after all, she did look rather sad. "I don't wanna be alone right now and I don't want to walk into the crowd by myself to search for the others," she explained and he said nothing. Sheena didn't behave like this usually. The girl seemed to understand what he was thinking and thus set herself to explain quickly. "It's just that – well, everybody's staring! And they mutter amongst themselves and laugh at me. I know I'm out of place and I wouldn't normally care, but with this dress...!"

Zelos looked around. Yes, there were some people staring at her – all of them men, he noticed, and none of them was laughing. He was staring and he wasn't laughing either, so he guessed he knew pretty well what those men were thinking.

Once more she glared at him but with no strength at all. "You aren't even listening..."

"Eh, Sheena..." he started, wondering how to explain people weren't looking at her because she was out of place but because of something rather different. It came out like: "You can be such an idiot at times, you know?"

The reaction was immediate. "What did you say?.?"

"Well, more like slow."

"You – you stupid Chosen! You know, you're right! I'm an idiot for even thinking that you'd understand!"

"Don't take it personally, now –"

"How am I supposed to take it, then?"

Zelos smirked. "See now? That's much more like yourself, ain't it?"

Sheena startled. "...eh?"

"That girly shy attitude? It's creepy."

"...idiot," she said and crossed her arms, but it was pretty obvious she was just containing a smile. Zelos forced himself not to look at her chest and took a step back.

"Well, if you're gonna be all depressed, I don't really have much choice..." he started and then bowed low, one hand behind his back while the other he offered in front. "Will such a lovely lady object to being escorted by me for the night?"

He peeked up and thought that he had never seen Sheena panicking like this. It was funny, really, how she looked around and tried to pat his hand away while muttering something like "Zelos – stop it – what are you – Zelos, get up! Everybody's staring – get up! Zelos –"

But down he stayed, bowing 'till the girl sighed and, while she refused to take his hand, finally answered. "Fine, I'll let you escort me or whatever," she said and he looked up, grinning amusedly. "But – but it's because I don't have any other option, got it?"

"Same here, same here!" he exclaimed, getting completely up now and grinning. The girl rolled her eyes a little, arms still crossed.

"So?"

"So what?"

"What do 'escorts' do, anyway?"

"Ah, well," Zelos started, placing himself next to her, "We are gleaming knights who make sure our lady is not hit on by other guys. And we dance."

Sheena stared at him. "Only that?"

"Well, we could hold hands and have make-out too, if you want!"

She raised her fist and then lowered it. "You're lucky we're in public!"

A little light went on within his head. "...meaning you'd like to go somewhere more private? I'd be delighted to guide you!"

"What? No! I – I didn't mean - !" but, without listening to her complains he took the girl's hand and. placing it on his arm, started to walk towards the crowd. "Zelos, let go of me!"

"Keep quiet, will you? They'll leave you alone as long as you're with me."

A small blush covered Sheena's cheeks. "But they stare."

"So what? They're just envious of the beautiful escort you have."

The ninja groaned but didn't say anything else, not even when they reached a small, almost hidden set of stairs that no one was paying attention to and not even when he started to climb them, keeping her arm fixed onto his.

When the stairs were over the pair found themselves on a balcony overlooking the ballroom. It was small and clearly wasn't meant to be used in parties as large as this, but it hadn't been forgotten by whoever had readied the hall: flowers and ribbons hung from the rail and the walls around them and a single lamp with two candles illuminated their steps.

From up the balcony the scene was pretty amazing, Zelos had to admit: a collage of colors and sounds, moving around with no apparent order and yet without being disharmonious. Sheena ran towards the rail and looked down, much to the Chosen's disappointment – he had expected her to comment perhaps on how the sweet scent of the flowers filled the air, or even to say something about the two being alone.

But she was slow, after all.

He joined her at the balcony rail and looked down without saying anything for a few minutes. When he got bored he leaned back into one of the pillars and wished he had taken something to drink.

Sheena looked up. "How did you know about this place?"

He shrugged, smug. "I've attended to dances and parties here for most of my life."

She arched an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yep!" and he figured some honesty wouldn't kill him, "And spent half of them hiding in these balconies."

The girl looked surprised. "You? Why would you do that?"

The Chosen smiled. It bothered him that she had reacted like that, but then again he had never shown his actual dislike for the noble society. "I can get bored, you know?"

"And don't you get even more bored here, by yourself?"

"Well, there are a few interesting things to do here..." he grinned and thought that yes, there were some things _much_ more interesting to do, but if he mentioned them she would kill him. "You can make fun of the people down there, for instance!"

Sheena once more looked skeptical, so he quickly searched for a 'victim' and pointed at a young couple not far from the balcony.

"Look at the girl's face."

"What with it?"

"She's completely bored!"

The girl snorted. "And that entertains you?"

"I just try to imagine what she's thinking. 'Why did I have to be stuck with such a windbag?' " he said, doing an extremely high-pitched voice for the girl's 'thoughts'.

"Oh. And the guy's probably thinking 'She's completely enthralled! I'm such a stud!'"

" 'Oh, were is the Great Chosen to save me!' "

"Idiot! Nobody would think something like that!"

"But you were! All alone, wishing for the marvelous Zelos to come and rescue you..."

"Yeah, right!"

He laughed, and she joined in a few instants later. Sheena sighed, stretched her arms in front of her and turned towards him, smiling. "You know, it ain't so bad up here."

"...did you expect anything less from your dashing escort, my lady?" he answered and she rolled her eyes and laughed again. He wondered for how long would he manage to keep her laughing and for how long he would manage to keep her up there. Perhaps she would want to go down once the music started. Or perhaps he could convince her to dance up where they were.

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**Notes:** An Odai lovingly ripped off from one of the Comic Anthologies, so there, I don't take credit this time. Well, for the basic plot... the dialogues and other decorations are mine!

So originally this was going to be all metaphoric and stuff, about how their relationship as uh, like a dance or something, because uh, it kept moving. I think. Then I realized I had too many "uh..."s in the idea and dropped it in favor for this one – I had read a story in the third volume of the Comic Anthologies, "Party Dress" by Sumino Hirume, and had fallen in love with it. Therefore I decided to use the basic idea and plot to make my Odai and share the love that little 6-page comic is.

I liked how this turned out mainly because it flowed pretty well from the beginning on. Had no problems writing this – no long silences wondering which word to use and that kind of thing. I hope you all enjoyed it!

On account of my being away from my country I wasn't able to answer most reviews... sorry again. I'll start again with this one RAR.

See you next week/time/whatever with...

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_#17 – Sea_

_(but I already wrote about the sea. Oh lawks!) _

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	17. Normal 17 Sea ¨¨Umi¨¨

**Disclaimer:** All appearing characters and places belong to Namco unless otherwise specified.

The O-dai themes belong to the Zeroshii-Wa, but it has closed down now. Ain't that so sad?

**Setting: **In-game.

**Warnings: **Don't you laugh at the tomatoes, I'm warning you!

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Normal Version,

**#17 – Sea**

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Through the window there came the sound of the gently rolling waves. It was relaxing, as most natural sounds were supposed to be. The sky was so dark it almost merged with the waters underneath and if it wasn't for the moon; a thin bow floating at the middle of the firmament that shone done upon the waters, breaking in thousands little fragments.

"Like leaping sardines shining under its rays," staring out of the window she muttered to herself, remembering an old poem from Mizuho she had learnt as a child. She had never thought it'd sound so weird when translated to the common everyday tongue, but surely of all possible fishes sardines weren't the most poetic ones.

Her poetic reverie was interrupted by a heavy sigh – a groan – coming from the bed in front of her and she, too, groaned.

"Why am I stuck with you, anyway?" the ninja said.

"Well, so sorry," laying on the bed the redhead snapped back. He was covered up to the waist with Altamira's delicate bed-sheets and his chest covered only by his thin black shirt.

Zelos, Chosen of Tethe'alla was currently suffering from heavy sunstroke.

Sheena, ninja and assasing from Mizuho was currently suffering from having to take care of the aforementioned Chosen.

"Unbelievable," she continued, "How did you, of all people, end up like this?"

Zelos didn't answer.

They had decided to take a day off at Altamira. Sheena, along with Raine, had stayed under a nice big umbrella for most of the day, enjoying the benefits of being friends with the hotel's owner. The rest of the group, however, had spent the entire day in various activities, from swimming around to collecting seashells and 'hunny-hunting'. They had stayed at the beach for most of the day and dedicated almost two hours to building a huge sand-castle, what with Lloyd's manual abilities and Presea's lightning-quick calculations.

The results had been predicted by Raine and ignored by everyone else: most of the group started feeling tired at dinner and by eight o'clock Lloyd, Genis, Presea and Zelos had taken to bed, with fever and headaches.

It was almost strange that Colette, who was amongst the palest of them all, hadn't been affected. Perhaps it had something to do with the Angel transformation, had said Raine before adding that

"The less, the best. I'll watch over the two kids – Colette, you stay with Lloyd. Sheena...?"

Even before the silver-haired medic had finished the ninja had known what she was about to say. And she didn't like it much but didn't have much of a choice either.

So there she was, stuck in the same room as Zelos and forced to watch over him 'till the fever went down. And while she certainly wasn't happy the Chosen didn't seem too giddy either – in fact he seemed to be downright moody and had been silent for most of the time. It seemed he didn't like headaches.

His silence hadn't been the blessing she would've thought it'd be – the silence that floated around the room wasn't exactly comforting, even with the waves running against the beach just outside of the window.

"This is what you get for chasing after girls all day long."

Zelos glared at her. "At least I didn't bore myself to death like you."

"_I_ wasn't bored."

"Well you bored _me_ at least."

"Idiot," Sheena rolled her eyes.

"And why do I have to put with this, anyway?" Zelos whined some more, taking a hand towards his forehead where a tomato slice had been placed. "What's the point of this?"

"Ask Raine," Sheena answered, "She was the one who told me to do it. I would've used ice."

Zelos puckered his lips. "Then use ice."

The ninja ignored him (she was feeling a little too lazy to go search for ice) and took the slice he was still holding, set it aside and took a new one which she placed onto his forehead. He sighed, content.

"The other one was getting too warm."

Sheena had to contain a smile. So tomatoes _did_ work, or perhaps they just offered relief. It was still the weirdest method she had heard of, but she wasn't the doctor, after all.

Zelos had closed his eyes and was starting to look less moody now. Sheena smiled at this – the sooner he fell asleep the sooner she would be able to rest, too. Also, he looked funny, with his hair all tussled and a tomato slice resting on his head. Still smiling, Sheena took two of the remaining slices and placed one on each of his cheeks.

Zelos didn't open his eyes. "You enjoy laughing at my misfortune."

"Well, I have to do something to make this more enjoyable."

The redhead sighed. "Women can be so cruel!"

"Only with idiots like you," she sniggered.

Zelos opened his eyes and the tomatoes fell onto his lap as he sat up and tried to wipe the remains with his hand. "Great, now I smell funny."

"Men always do," commented Sheena tiredly.

"So you've noticed? Why, I'm grateful."

"That wasn't a compliment, you stupid Chosen," the ninja rolled her eyes and gathered the tomato slices together. "I'll assume you're feeling fine now."

"Nah, I just wanted to get a look at the sea," was the man's answer, though he was obviously completely past the fever.

"Ah, really," answered her but didn't leave. Instead she, too, stared out at the window. "You like the sea?"

"...don't have anything against it. Wouldn't like to be in the middle of a storm though."

"No one would."

Zelos slipped back into the bed, pulled the sheets up to his shoulders and sighed. "Makes a nice lullaby."

She raised an eyebrow, even though he couldn't really see it. "You're not the kind one would associate with lullabies."

"Why not?" Zelos half-glared at her now, "Even the Great Chosen was a kid once."

"I bet you were as obnoxious as you are now, too," she replied, laughing.

A little for her surprise he didn't retort with any witticism nor did he boasted about how he had been called a prodigy. In fact, there wasn't much reaction at all – he just moved his eyes back to the window before saying "...I wonder."

Sheena chose not to say much more. She had first met him when they were working at the Meltokio Imperial Research Laboratory – he was in his late teens and she was a country girl that didn't trust neither the city nor the flamboyant man who called himself the Chosen – was he supposed to be Spiritua's successor?

And yet... things had happened in between them. They could've gone better but they could've also gone much worse and there she was now, sitting next to his bed and placing tomato slices on his forehead. Fate was sure funny.

She thought that in all the years she had known him he had never once spoken of his childhood nor had he mentioned his family – his father, his mother, his sister, not a word. Sheena guessed that wasn't an easy topic for him: his mother had been murdered in front of his eyes, after all.

According to the whole of Meltokio, she had died protecting him. According to the Mizuho intelligence net, she had simply been caught in the crossfire. The truth, however, was only known to Zelos... and how could she ask him to talk about such thing?

"...do you remember any lullabies?" she finally said. It was not that she was curious, but (perhaps thanks to his headache) he seemed to be I an unusually serious mood and thus it'd be easier to coax something out of him.

When he turned to answer, however, it was clear that she wouldn't get anything clear that night. "I've got better things to use my memory on!"

"Really?" she sighed, knowing she would regret asking "What sort of things?"

"My beautiful hunnies names and sizes."

"Idiot," the girl said.

"You?" the redhead asked, once more sinking into the sheets, "Remember any?"

Sheena nodded. "I remember one my grandpa used to sing to me."

"Really?" the man grinned, "Will you sing it for me?"

"As if!" she exclaimed immediately enough. "You've got the sea, anyway."

"So cruel! And just when my headache was leaving!"

"It's leaving because I'm getting one because of you."

He laughed but didn't answer much more and she went back to looking out of the window. The silence had finally turned mellow and she was surprised at how she wasn't actually feeling like leaving anymore. Perhaps it was because of the sound of the waves and their constant washing outside on because of how pretty the moon looked reflected on top of the waters.

The reason didn't matter, she guessed.

"Say, Zelos..." she started, knowing she wanted to say something or maybe to ask something although she wasn't completely sure what – but maybe she'd find out what it was once he answered.

But no answer came. When she looked at the man laying on the bed she found him asleep, his chest rising up and down slowly, almost to the rhythm of the ocean waves. The ninja smiled, got up and, careful not to make any noise, left the room. He needed to sleep as much as she did and the journey was by far not over... surely, as the sea she left behind in his room, she would get a chance to ask.

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**Notes:** I told you not to laugh at the tomatoes… well, they do work with sunstrokes, I swear. Either that or my family had the weirdest healing methods – tomatoes, ashes and sleep.

This could've been so angsty and/or so fluffy. But this is normal version, so no angst and no fluff for you! ...yet. I wonder how many more I'll write though? Well, only three more to go 'till the end of the Normal series, so you'd better get ready for, uh, whatever follows.

**Important Notice! _Heed the italized bold letters, for they call you! _**I've started uploading some of the ToS Comic Anthologies, specially those who contain Zelos/Sheena themes or those who make me laugh. You can find the images at the Sheelos LiveJournal Community linked at in my profile... drop a line while you're there, will you? Scanning takes not only a lot of time but also leaves me with a back-ache, but your comments would make it all worthwhile! (or maybe not, but c'mon people... please?)

Anyway, thanks to all who reviewed the last one, thanks a lot! I think I did manage to answer most of the reviews this time, I'll try to keep it up as we near the end of the "Normal" series with –

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_#18 – Hot-spring_

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	18. Normal 18 Hotsprings ¨¨Onsen¨¨

**Disclaimer:** All appearing characters and places belong to Namco unless otherwise specified.

The O-dai themes belong to the Zeroshii-Wa, but it has closed down now. Ain't that so sad?

**Setting: **Alternate-Universe.

**Warnings: **Hey people, did you read the setting? _Yes we did! _Good, because this is kind of a school-trip-fic, set for some reason in Japan. Don't ask, I don't know.

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Normal Version,

**#18 – Hot-springs**

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Various yelps of surprise and contentment sounded around the rock-enclosed pool as the girls entered the water. Sheena, perhaps a little more used to the hot-springs' temperature, sighed happily as her body got used to the heat.

She smiled and turned towards one of the exchange students she was supposed to be guiding, a blonde by the name of Colette.

"Careful," she called, "It's pretty hot."

The girl smiled and nodded, stepping gingerly into the water and then easing down slowly. She panted a little. "Do the Japanese do this a lot?"

The black-haired girl shook her head. "Only old men," she answered, knowing pretty well that wasn't the complete truth, but there was no point in complicating things for the girl. She would have enough time to get to know the culture.

Colette looked around happily. "This is really pretty. I always thought these open pools would be cold, but it's pretty warm."

"The water is too hot for the air to be cold," Sheena laughed and leant back, looking at the sky. This wasn't a particularly expensive resort, but it was far enough from the city that no noises (besides the group's own) could be heard and the stars shone prettily on the sky.

Behind and a little to her back a wooden wall (a palisade almost) rose from the floor. It was perhaps three or four meters high and it divided the women and the men's area. Now _that_ wall was something she was definitely grateful for – smaller hot-spring hotels had only one mixed pool, and that would only spell awkward for both parties.

"The stars are so different from my home," she heard Colette saying next to her. The blonde laughed sheepishly. "Then again I'm almost at the other side of the world. Eh, for me. For my country, I mean."

"...yes. I don't think I ever tried to look at the stars when I was abroad," answered Sheena.

"You wouldn't have been able," sighed Colette and sunk a little further into the water, "Most cities are too full of light and you can't see them."

Silence ensued, but Sheena didn't really mind. They had been working all day – walking from here to there, visiting museums, restaurants, stores... they deserved the rest.

"Um..." Colette said again, "How did you say these things were called?"

"What, the hot-springs?" Sheena asked, more to herself, "_Onsen_"

"Ah..." the girl smiled. "Onsen, onsen... I have to remember that. Onsen, onsen..."

The black-haired girl smiled. When she heard a group of foreign students would be spending half a year (maybe more) at the university Sheena Fujibayashi had quickly volunteered to guide them during their stay. Having spent some years studying abroad she knew how hard it could be at first – when you didn't know the language, when you didn't know anyone and when you didn't even know how to approach the natives... it was hard and it was lonely and it was something _she_ wouldn't wish on anyone.

She was glad she had volunteered, too. They had been together for only two weeks but it had been enough for her to meet some people she was sure she would cherish for all of her life. Colette; theology major who was there to study the local Buddhism, Lloyd; a teen who was due to participate in a kendo tournament soon, and then there was Genis; a boy whom she thought would only be accompanying his sister but that had surprised all of the volunteers by mastering most verb-forms after just a week.

And, of course, there was said kid's older sister, Raine; who was an interesting woman with a certain air of motherhood around her (and an unhealthy interest in old Shinto temples) and Kratos, Lloyd's father and trainer – a man whose sword-arm, she was sure, would easily surpass most of Japan's stars.

"...hey, it's HOT!" a male voice cried from the other side of the wall and Sheena scowled just a little.

There were Colette, Lloyd, Genis, Raine and Kratos and _then_ there was him. She hadn't thought she would meet him ever again – sure, she had studied almost a year with him, but that didn't mean anything.

And yet there he was.

"How are you supposed to get in there, anyway?" Zelos Wilder, reluctant theology student and (from his point of view) play-boy extraordinaire, as if that was anything to boast about. What was he doing in Japan? Only he knew and he certainly hadn't explained.

Colette giggled. "Wasn't Orochi there to them?"

"With a little luck he'll push the idiot in."

Colette laughed. "Did you really meet Zelos before?"

"Unfortunately?"

"Isn't it really amazing that you'd find each other again?" the blonde insisted, eyes brimming with innocence.

"...amazing, yeah," Sheena sighed. She hadn't been angry to see him again – she hadn't been happy – she hadn't known what to feel and she still didn't.

"Perhaps it's fate!" Colette exclaimed, almost splashing in her vehemence.

"Fate?" she raised an eyebrow, "Of all people, do _you_ believe in fate?"

"Well..." the girl seemed to think, "I guess it depends on which religion you speak of, but me..." She hugged her knees and looked up at the sky. "I think we're freer than that."

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"Where is Zelos, anyway?" a brown-haired boy looked around. "He was just complaining about the temperature a few minutes ago."

A silver-haired boy, clearly younger than the rest and sitting by the edge of the pool, looked around as well, looked at the palisade that separated them from the girls and, seeing the redhead wasn't there, shrugged. "Perhaps he got tired of the heat."

The first one sighed. "Well I'm getting a little bored too... what's the point of just sitting here? I can't even wash!"

The younger one shook his head. "Lloyd, onsen are meant for relaxation and healing. The almost abnormally high temperatures help the muscles relax and since the waters come from a natural volcanic foundation it's filled with minerals that nourish the skin and are known to cure certain diseases..."

"Fine, fine, I get it..." Lloyd cut the boy's speech, "Geez, did you memorize the travel book?"

Genis laughed. Next to them Orochi, one of the volunteers that had traveled along with them, smiled. "The speed with which you learn whatever information we give you is --"

"Move it!" a new voice joined in. The three men looked up to see the man they had been looking for re-entering the area. He was carrying a pair of rudimental cloth-bags that were obviously concealing something.

"Zelos!" Lloyd called, "Where did you go, anyway?"

"I needed to pick some stuff now that the old man's out of the way," the redheaded explained.

"Hey, Kratos isn't that old..."

Zelos re-entered the pool slowly, wincing slightly as he did so. "No offense bud, but your dad ain't the most fun guy to be around."

"...can I ask what is it you have in the bags?" asked Orochi, as though he already knew the answer but had to ask anyway.

The redhead lowered himself down to his waist before answering. "Well, the brat here ain't the only one who knows about traditions and stuff..."

"Hey!"

"_I_ read," Zelos continued, producing two white bottles out of one of the bags, "That it's also traditional to drink this while soaking. Sake, was it?"

"...it is?" Lloyd turned towards Orochi.

"Yes, well, it's not exactly traditional, but..."

"See?" Zelos grinned, "And since the brat here can't drink..."

"Stop calling me that!"

"We have four bottles for the three of us," he uncorked the first bottle and from the second bag got three small plate-like cups. "So, gentlemen... cheers?"

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Sheena had long ago left the spring, gone to get washed, helped Colette fight her way through the traditional bathing area (radically different from the things the blonde was accustomed to) the lavatories and fetched some cold tea for the two of them. Now that the blonde was done with all of that they were ready to hit the spring for one last soak before going back to their rooms.

Careful not to spill their beverages the two lowered themselves into the water with much more ease than before.

"Once you get used it's so nice..." Colette sighed.

"You can't stay for much long your first time though."

"Why?"

"You can pass out," Sheena explained, "I've seen that once or twice."

"Then... shouldn't I step out? It's my first time, after all..."

"Its fine," she waved her hand, "A few minutes before you sleep do wonders... you'll sleep like a baby."

Suddenly all around them the rest of the girls yelped or shouted various cusswords. The ones that were inside the water lowered themselves 'till only their head was visible, and the most of the rest ran inside the baths. Colette and Sheena, not really knowing why, did the same and submerged themselves.

It wasn't much later than she discovered the reason.

"Sheee-naaaaa!" a voice called from the palisade and she was (not that) surprised to see a familiar mane of red hair peeking over the wall. "Where are ya, babe?" said the man in fluent drunk-speech.

"Heheheheh..." next to the redhead a second head peeked up and, upon seeing them, waved. "Heeeey, Colette, you totally need to see... you know, too see from up here!" Lloyd called, apparently as drunk as the other.

"I can't believe this..." Sheena muttered. "Let's go, Colette... Colette?"

The blonde was already covered by a big towel-robe and standing by the palisade. "Lloyd, you'll fall down if you're not careful!"

"...I can't believe this," Sheena muttered again. Clutching the towel close to her body she got up, fetched her own robe and, ignoring all what Zelos was yelling from atop the palisade fetched Colette's robe and tugged at it. "Let's get inside, Colette."

"But...!" she resisted, "What if they fall down?"

"Sheeeena, you'd catch me, right?" Zelos asked.

Lloyd laughed. "We won't fall! Look, I can even let go! No hands!"

"Don't let go, idiot!" Sheena yelled. "Where is Genis, anyway?"

"_I_ tried to talk them into not doing that!" the younger boy's voice barely reached them, "Do you think they listened?"

"And Orochi?"

"...he kinda had some sake too..."

"Gods," the girl sighed. "Let's go Colette. Don't worry; if they were able to climb up they can get down as well..."

"Uh..." Lloyd chose to day just then, "It's uh, getting kinda cold... uh..."

The blonde's face scrunched in worry. "Can you get down Lloyd?"

"Ah..."

Sheena sighed. "Zelos, get him down. _Now_."

The redhead shook his head (and most of his body), vehement. "Not unless... unless... y'gimme a kiss!"

The girl slapped her forehead. Even if she agreed – which she wouldn't ever do – how was she supposed to get up there?

"Stupid drunken idiot..." she murmured, "Stay up there! We'll go fetch Kratos or something."

"Noooo don't leaaaaveee!" Zelos called.

She tugged at Colette's arm and the girl, seemingly accepting that was the best thing to do, followed her.

Sheena, however, had to force herself to keep walking when, behind her, she heard the redhead's voice calling

"So cruel... and after I came all the way here searching for you, too..."

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...so much for the hot springs – after hearing that line she had had trouble sleeping.

She hadn't thought of such a possibility, of course. She _had_ realized that if Zelos ever traveled via his university he was bound to end at hers – after all, the two colleges had an agreement that had lasted for years and years now.

However, she hadn't though it'd be for her.

Sure, they had kinda sorta dated when she studied abroad... but as much as she didn't like to admit it, it hadn't been serious... so why? Was he really searching for her? Or was he just trying to pick her up, as usual? Or perhaps he was just drunk.

It was a little past five and a half in the morning and they were leaving the onsen-town. If they wanted to arrive to their next destination on time they needed to hurry. Sheena waved good-morning to Kratos and Raine, who were talking just next to the bus' door and climbed inside.

Inside the bus the only sound was that of a hushed conversation towards the bottom, the rest of the students has fallen asleep, waiting for their classmates and professors to get ready. All of the sleepers were covered in travel-mantles of different colors which, Sheena knew, were stored in the overhead compartments. She, too, would get one as soon as she decided where to sit.

In the third row, to the right of the bus, Lloyd was sleeping with his mouth slightly ajar, squeezed in between an equally-sleepy Colette and Genis, who was covered by about three different blankets.

Just behind them was Zelos, covered in a light-blue mantle, sleeping with his head resting on the window. He would get a neck-ache and then he would complain about it all day long but Sheena didn't have the heart to shake him awake – as much as she would like some answers, as much as the partially-empty and completely asleep bus would be the perfect place for them to talk, she just couldn't.

Instead she sat next to him were _someone_ had left a red blanket, neatly folded, just for her.

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**Notes:** OMG I've started doing AU. I won't be able to stop now, I know it.

So how did this came to be? Hot-springs equal onsen equals Japan... and my mind refused to do anything else. And I like Alternate Universes. A lot. So don't be surprised if I end up doing more of these... BTW, I know nothing of the USA or Europe's college system, and I don't know if theology is a major. But as you can guess, I don't particularly care.

I liked this one. Could've been longer and better, perhaps, but I liked it anyway and I think the size was ok, too. It was written in a sitting, too – not more than a few hours.

I actually finished this one last week, but E3 got in the way and you know... thanks for the comments and the critique last time – very much appreciated! I hope you liked this one and that you'll enjoy the next –

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_#19 – At the Castle_

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	19. Normal 19 At the Castle ¨¨OShiro de¨¨

**Disclaimer:** All appearing characters and places belong to Namco unless otherwise specified.

The O-dai themes belong to the Zeroshii-Wa, but it has closed down now. Ain't that so sad?

**Setting: **Just a few months post-game.

**Warnings: **Spoilers, and I can't thing of anything else.

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Normal Version,

**#19 – At the Castle**

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Right leg crossed over the left one, foot moving up and down, up and down, impatiently.

Not three days ago she had been summoned to meet the King of Tethe'alla – a most important matter of international interests, the missive had read.

'International', she knew, meant it had to do with Sylvarant, therefore she wasn't surprised they needed her.

She had, however, been kept waiting for perhaps twenty minutes now and was starting to get impatient. The small waiting room where she had been guided to didn't offer many diversions: the few books that rested within a wood and glass case seemed to be for decorative purposes and through the single window that decorated the wall in front of her she could see only a lonely courtyard with some trees she didn't feel like identifying: though they were most probably fruit trees they were almost leafless now that autumn was closing in.

She uncrossed her legs, moved them a little and looked around. If this was such a pressing matter, then why was she there instead of talking with the king?

She crossed her legs again – left over right, and without noticing she started moving her foot again, up down up down up down, arms crossed.

A door creaked to her left and she turned. It was only an old woman in an expensive-looking maid outfit and she held a silver tray, primly adorned with flowers, a plate full of fresh fruits, some crackers and two white porcelain cups. The woman placed the tray on a small table in front of the sofa she had been using.

"Excuse me," Sheena started, "Will I have to wait much more?"

The maid curtsied slightly – the kind of bow she did not out of respect but out of obligation. "I'm most terribly sorry, Miss, but I'm afraid his Majesty's business is not for a servant to know. However," the woman continued, cutting the ninja off, "You will be joined soon by His Majesty's second guest. I'll bring the teakettle in an instant, so with your leave -"

Another bow and suddenly the woman was out of the room, leaving Sheena with an arm up in the air and her mouth half-open. Incredible, she thought, how the woman had managed to escape with such speed without actually being rude.

"Experience," she sighed and sat back down, her feet again up down up down before reaching for a cracker. It tasted of cinnamon.

The door opened again but she ignored it this time. Just the maid bringing the teakettle so she and the 'second guest' could have some tea and crackers while waiting for the King to finish whatever it was he was doing and allow the two of them into the audience hall.

"Now now, didn't _anyone_ ever tell you how rude it is to start eating before the rest of the company arrives?"

She didn't turn as the phrase ended, that wouldn't have been the human reaction. She turned around the middle of it, the voice too familiar for her to ignore. And she would've said something except her mouth was full of cinnamon cracker.

Zelos Wilder grinned his usual cocky smile, brushed his hair – which was held tightly in a braid – and sat on the chair in front of her, at the other side of the small table.

"Hey!" he greeted, happy tones floating in his voice, "Been a while, hasn't it?"

The ninja finally managed to swallow what was left of the cookie (unusually dry, she thought – meant to be accompanied by tea, not eaten alone) and said

"Wait, don't tell me _you_ are the 'second guest'?"

Zelos arched an eyebrow. "You think I dress like this everyday?"

The Chosen has changed his pink attire for something slightly more formal, though not as much as the suit she had seen him wearing during the ball the princess had held for them. The redhead's new attire consisted of darker colors (contrasted with white as always) and looked significantly warmer than the last one, which was understandable since it had gotten pretty chilly lately.

It suddenly made her conscious of how downtrodden her suit must look. After returning home from the 'trip' with everyone she had exchanged her purple travel-clothes for the dark attire the rest of the ninja used. It had been only three months but it already looked worn, perhaps too worn-out for a meeting with the king.

Wasn't that a good thing, however? It showed that she was no flimsy court-girl concerned with appearance and etiquette but a hard-working woman whose main aim was comfort during her work-time.

It was also quite warm, and with winter coming in thatwas something she valued above anything else.

Whether he had noticed how she felt or not Zelos showed no special emotion on his face. As he opened his mouth to say something the door opened again and the maid from before walked in, carrying a kettle. Ignoring the fact that she was old enough to be his grandmother the Chosen 'greeted' her and flirted as she served the tea, making the ninja roll her eyes.

Once alone Zelos smiled at her again. "So what you been up to for the last months? Haven't heard of you at all."

"Mizuho's supposed to be a secret village. You can't expect letters to come out of it very often."

"Yes, well, I know how to find it though?" the redhead lifted his cup, "Not that secret now, is it?"

She crossed her arms. "And that's why we're moving it."

"What, just so I can't find you?" Zelos sighed and blew the steam off his tea, "You can be so cruel..."

"Why hadn't you told me about this, anyway?" she reproached, "I'll bet you know perfectly well why the King wanted to speak with me."

"Mmmh?" he took a sip of tea and took a cracker from the tray. "Yes, of course. I was the one who came with the idea, after all."

The girl had to contain herself. Throttling the Chosen or yanking some of his hair just wouldn't be acceptable while they were inside the castle. Outside, however...

"But the delay wasn't my fault," the man added suddenly.

She stopped halfway to the tea cup. "Delay?"

Zelos nodded, solemn. "Mmh, I figured they wouldn't tell you on time."

Sheena wasn't sure of what to answer. An explosion of anger wouldn't solve anything and, again, what was the point of yelling at the Chosen? He didn't have any authority over themonarch and it would only get her a lot of unwanted attention.

Once more unaware of her train of thought Zelos smiled widely. "And that's why I decided to come early. What kind of man would leave his favorite hunny all alone, in such a big castle...?"

"...couldn't you have sent me a messenger instead?" the girl asked through half-clenched teeth.

"Well I _could_ but I figured it's been a while, you wouldn't mind spending some time with me!"

"I, unlike some other people, have work to do!"

"It won't kill you to take some time off!" Zelos countered, unfazed. "Have some tea, or crackers. Taste wonderful."

"Aaagh!" Sheena groaned, let herself fall back to the couch and took a bit off the cracker, washing it down with the tea. "Can't you at least tell me why am I here? And don't get smart on me, you just said you were the one who though of it!"

The redhead though for an instant. "It's a secret."

"No it is not. Tell me."

"It's a surprise?"

"I don't like surprises."

"Oooh, though girl," he laughed, "Fine then. My not telling you here it's political strategy, so there."

"...since when do you know _anything_ of politics?"

"All of my life, hunny," he explained, batting his eyelashes and taking some more tea, "Only I hadn't felt like using it before."

"And I'm your first victim? Goddess..." Sheena finished the cracker messily, not caring her suit was covered in sugar and cinnamon. She rested her head on her hands and sighed. " I don't have time to waste here eating cookies. Can't you do something?"

Zelos shook his head, smiling apologetically. "I could give you a tour of the castle?"

"I already know most of it," she grumbled.

"In case you ever had to kill someone? Hey, don't look at me like that!" he raised an arm as in self-defense. "Gee, touchy ain't you?"

"You expect me to like that sort of joke?"

"Well I can't do anything against common belief, can I?" Zelos dusted his hands off and looked around as she sullenly sipped her tea. His eyes rested for a moment on the books, he grimaced and then looked at the window.

Here, his face lit up.

"You haven't ever been to that orchard, have you?"

"Orchard?" the ninja asked, "You mean those dry trees?"

"What can you expect? It's almost winter!" the Chosen stood up, "Lemme show you, the meeting won't start in at least an hour and a half anyway."

The ninja looked skeptic for a second before sighing, putting her cup down and taking the hand he had offered her just to get up. "Fine, fine..."

"Your suit is full of sugar, you know... perhaps I can -?"

"I can dust myself, thanks."

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He hadn't orchestrated the delay – really, he hadn't, but he was somehow thankful for it now.

They had walked down to the small inner 'orchard', as Zelos called the small courtyard where two apples, three plums and quite a few lemon trees grew. It was empty andwith the exception of the lemons all the trees had lost most of their leaves.

"You gotta visit during the spring, or the early summer," he told the girl, "This place smells of all the fruits."

Sheena had smiled. "Must be nice."

They walked side by side, slowly, as it wasn't a large orchard and they had a lot of time to kill. From the girl's clothes and from her mouthZelos thought he could smell a faint yet warm scent of cinnamon, andhe thoughthe liked ita few thousand times better than all the fragances that spring brought to that yard.

Just to keep warm they sat close on a small stone bench and talked and talked about mostly unimportant things - the weather, the friends, the lands they had visited, their favorite food, topics they had talked of before and yet never got tired of.Almost suddenly the bells of the Meltokio Cathedral rang and the girl looked up in surprise. "It's been an hour already?" she asked, "I didn't feel it at all."

"...time flies, doesn't it?" he commented perhaps softer than he had intended and got up. "Let's go back to the room, my butt is starting to freeze."

She slapped his hand away, laughing. "Do you have to be so coarse all the time?"

"Hey, I'm only saying the truth! Now, if _your_ butt is freezing I think I could do something about it..."

Her face, already reddened by the cold autumn air, heated immediately. "You – you! How can you say something like that!"

"It was just a joke, a joke! Geez, do you always take things this serious...?"

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"...so that was your 'strategy', then?" she shot the man a glare.

He grinned, knowing himself victorious.

Sheena Fujibayashi had just been asked by the King of Tethe'alla to be Peace Emissary for Sylvarant. It was a honor she would've done without – but this was the King himself asking. There was no way to say no.

And Zelos knew about this. That's why he had chosen not to tell her before – he had waited until all escape routes had been closed.

"And you know the beauty of it all?" he teased, "Guess who you'll be reporting to?"

The girl opened her eyes. "You don't mean...!"

"Yep! From now on the great and marvelous ex-Chosen of Tethe'alla will be checking your progress and reports."

"Oh _nice_..."

"Awww c'mooon, Sheena?" Zelos whined, "You just said time flies by with me?"

"That was you!"

"But still!" he insisted, "We'll be working together from now on, right? Look at the bright side of it!"

"Which is?"

"You'll get to see my orchard in spring-time," he grinned and offered his hand.

Sheena tried to contain a smile but it finally got through. "Fine. We'll be seeing a lot of each other, so why not start with the right foot?"

"That's my hunny, now!" the Chosen laughed and shook her hand with enthusiasm. "You'll see, I know it... the Castle ain't that bad of a work-place."

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**Notes:** Anton Chejov once said that if a writer describes a gun, as inconsequential as it may seem to be, said gun must play a role in the story. That's the effect I wanted to go for with the courtyard, although I'm not sure I managed to pull it correctly.

The second effect I was aiming for was precisely the short scene at the orchard – small and mainly to show the friendship and how time goes by even when they're just talking. In other words, this o-dai was meant to be not so romantic as a friendship/getting closer sort of thing. That one did work, I think.

As essays and final exams close in I have less and less time... but hey, only one more normal to go! Then a new theme, finally. Yay! Thanks much for the response for the last one. I'm aware AU aren't that easy to get into, but I'll probably try a few more anyway, only 'cause I love 'em.

Thanks for reading!

_WDR_

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_#20 – Screaming Sheelos!_

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	20. Normal 20 Screaming Sheelos!

**Disclaimer:** All appearing characters and places belong to Namco unless otherwise specified.

The O-dai themes belong to the Zeroshii-Wa, but it has closed down now. Ain't that so sad?

**Setting: **In-game.

**Warnings: **Heavy with dialogue, and basically, point-less.

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Normal Version,

**#20 – Screaming Sheelos!**

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"You stupid Chosen!"

The answer was immediate. "Eh?"

"Don't give me that. You know perfectly well what I'm talking about!"

"No I don't."

"Yes you do!"

"I honestly can´t remember doing anything yell-worthy lately."

"Lately," the woman sneered, "So you admit you've done _things_?"

"What kind of things are we talking about?"

More arguing ensued and not far from the screaming pair two others, a young blonde in a white dress, and a boy with two swords, looked up from what they had been doing and, after looking at the little 'show", looked at each other and smiled.

They were the only witnesses of the row at the moment. Regal and Presea had offered themselves to go buy some supplies (they were running low on fresh vegetables and fruit) and Genis had insisted in accompanying them – blushing and stuttering he had explained it was just to learn some more from Regal. Raine, too, was away, most probably checking the nearby ruins from the Balacruft civilization.

That left the four of them alone.

Colette was not-so-deftly weaving flowers into crowns, Lloyd had joined in much more succesfully and was not so succesfuly trying to teach the blonde girl, who nonetheless kept trying.

Meanwhile, it seemed that Zelos Wilder, Chosen of Mana and self-declared playboy, was getting tired of being yelled at without receiving an explanation. It also seemed as though the other side of the argument, secret agent for Mizuho and Tethe'alla, Sheena Fujibayashi, _wasn´t_ tired of yelling at all and planned to continue for some more minutes.

"Look, Sheena, hunny, banshee," the man was saying in vain tries of appeasing the girl, "This isn't getting anywhere..."

"And it won't if you keep calling me like that!" the girl raged in return. A few steps away the twin-swordsman, Lloyd Irving, whispered to his own partner that, the way the redhead grinned, one would think he _liked_ annoying the purple-clad girl.

Before the argument, while Lloyd and Colette made yellow-and-green crowns, Sheena had taken to put some order in her normally messy travel-pack. Dirty clothes had been placed apart, clean ones in a small bundle, personal items in the middle.

Zelos, for once silent, had taken one of Raine's books and was seemingly very immersed in it before the ninja had stopped at the middle of counting something, had looked at her items and had started yelling at him.

From Lloyd's point of view, Zelos was being honest as he insisted: "I'm just saying you should at least explain me why you're so angry!"

"Yeah right, just so you could claim it was out of... curiosity, or something stupid again?" Sheena crossed her arms, "Forget it!"

Zelos laughed as in defeat. "You still don't forgive me about –"

"Of course not!" she answered, "But this isn't about that!"

"Fine. What is it about?"

"Don't act as if you don't know!" the ninja insisted, "I want an apology."

Zelos, however, shook his head. "Not until you at least tell me why am I apologizing for."

Sheena narrowed her eyes. "Apologize. Now."

The man sighed deeply. "I'm sorry."

"You're _so_ not meaning that!"

"Well I don't know what I'm apologizing for!"

Lloyd and Colette had to stiffle a few giggles. When Sheena turned their way they quickly returned to their flower crowns, as if they had never left them unattended.

The girl turned around again. "Look, Zelos, I _know_ it was you, so just apologize alredy."

The redhead appeared to think for a few seconds before shaking his head. "Hey, it's not my fault if you're missing a pair or two of panties..."

He stopped halfway as the girl started to tint very, very red.

"...you _are_ missing some panties?" Zelos asked, incredulous, and started laughing loudly. "And here I was just making things up!"

Behind them Lloyd and Colette, too, were doubled over with laughter, the flower crowns completely forgotten.

"Shut – shut up!" Sheena screamed, "What – what I'm missing isn't just – just – hand them back!"

"Don't have any!" Zelos retorted, "I was making things up! Besides, what would I want your undies for?"

"I – I wouldn't know that! Idiot! Pervert! It's all your faul!"

"What is?"

Sheena wouldn't get much redder even if she tried. "You stupid Chosen!"

Zelos calmed his laughter, looked at the girl straight into her eyes and said "You stupid Chosen!"

She stepped back. "Wh-what?"

"Wh-what?"

Hands into fists at her sides, she yelled "Stop that!"

His hands mirrored hers. "Stop that!"

"Look, Zelos..."

"Look, Zelos..."

"Ah, forget it...!" she rolled her eyes and waved a hand away.

"Ah, forget it...!" he followed her movements one by one. Lloyd again exploded in laughter.

"This is childish," she stated.

"This is childish," he said as well, arms crossed in a perfect imitation of hers.

"Stop that!"

"Stop that!"

"Zelos!"

"Zelos!"

By that moment the redhead was basically matching not only her movements but also the timing. As Sheena grew more and more frustrated she also became easier to anticipate.

"If you don't stop that I'll hit you!" the two said and the two slapped each other's head – Zelos had, of course, used no strength at all but it had taken her by surprise.

"OW!" the two screamed, "What do you think you're doing! Why did you – hey! Stop imitating me! Stop, I tell you!"

Colette smiled at the two. "You two get along so well!"

Sheena huffed (Zelos did too). "Don't even joke about that!"

"Don't even joke about that!"

"Shut up!"

"Shut up!"

"...did I miss anything?" a new voice joined the fray, and Colette turned around. Lloyd was still too busy laughing.

Raine, carrying a bundle of cloth, was standing behind the two, an eyebrow arched and looking at the four as if she didn't know whether to be amused or annoyed.

"Professor!" Colette chirped, "How were the ruins?"

"Ruins?" the woman asked, "Oh, you thought I was visiting the Balacruft ruins close by?"

"We assumed," said Sheena, sounding tired.

"We assumed," nodded Zelos as well, though he didn't sound half as tired as the girl.

"Shut up."

"Shut up."

"...I _did_ miss something, I see," Raine said. "Well, sadly, what I was doing wasn't half as interesting at the ruins."

"What was it, professor?" asked Lloyd, who had finally stopped his fit.

"Laundry," said she, "Sheena? Remember how you were complaining about all you had to clean?"

"...yes...?"

"...yes...?"

Ignoring the redhead-echo, Raine continued, "I decided to take some of your clothes along. Here," she opened the bundle and tossed the ninja a smaller one.

Sheena catched it clumsily, looked at it and then looked at Zelos, who looked about to explode laughing.

"Just laugh, idiot..."

And laugh he did.

"Now, now, hun," the Chosen managed to say in between, hugging onto the blushing girl, "You know I forgive you, you don't need to be so bashful at all!"

"...shut up..."

Raine turned towards Lloyd and Colette, expecting an explanation perhaps. Her only response was a shrug of Lloyd'd shoulders and an inoccent smile courtesy of Colette. With a small sigh Raine turned around. Whatever had happened she guessed had to do with the clothes she had taken, but it also didn't seem particularly important.

Just one of the things that were part of their everyday.

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**

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**

**Notes:** Whoa, late! Do I have a schedule, anyway? Vacations and a hospital got in my way and then, well, truth be told, I wasn't thinking of uploding this, and I don't know if I'll upload any else. Time will tell.

I wrote this in a sitting, and even though I know it's mainly dialogue, I just like it. I don't think I have much else to say. The idea of Zelos copying Sheena had been pestering my mind for a while now.

I hope you guys enjoyed reading this one too! It's the last of the Normal series, meaning

that if I do continue we'll start with Fun, which will be alternated with the Dark and the Fluff series so I don't get so bored.

Bye!

_WDR_


	21. Fun 1 Smile ¨¨Egao¨¨

**Disclaimer:** All appearing characters and places belong to Namco unless otherwise specified.

The O-dai themes belong to the Zeroshii-Wa, but it has closed down now. Ain't that so sad?

**Setting: **Post-game.

**Warnings: **Fluff?

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Fun Version,

**#1 – Smile**

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The rain came down steadily, a gray curtain of water that made it nearly impossible to see anything that was more than three feet away.

"Bo-ring."

It had started raining in the late morning and, as of six o'clock in the afternoon, hadn't stopped nor did it look like it would stop any time soon. There was no way of knowing how big the storm was – as far as the eye could see the sky was covered in black clouds, and the (very wet) scouts that had reported just an hour or so ago had confirmed that most of Gaoracchia was under Nature's assault.

"Bo-ring."

In all of Mizuho not a single soul dared to leave their homes. Those who had been out, working the fields or as agents, had returned as soon as they could and were, by now, taking long hot baths to warm up before dinner. There was no telling when would the storm end, so there was nothing to do but wait.

"Bo-ring!"

"I heard you the first time!"

"Then _say_ something!"

The soon-to-be-Chief's home was unusually full that night. Not to say there were many people but still, two is more than one.

Moving into a house of her own had made Sheena Fujibayashi, spy and successor for Mizuho, appreciate human company more than ever before. Most of her meals were either done while working or with her grandfather or with Orochi, but even then it was somewhat lonely.

So when the storm had started she had secretly been glad that Zelos Wilder, ex-Chosen for Tethe'alla, had been visiting. If she was going to be trapped inside for Goddess knew how many hours, then she would at least have someone to talk to.

He, too, hadn't been completely distraught. He had of course complained, but it had been more of a joke than anything else, and they had spent two nice hours just talking. The storm, however, had continued. And then it had continued, and then it just didn't stop. They had eaten lunch and it was still raining, and now there she was, preparing dinner, and going outside was still a pretty impossible thing to do.

An hour ago Zelos had, without really asking for permission, taken out her futon and basically hidden in it. Only his head could be seen, and at some point not even that; just random strands of red hair.

She sighed. "What do you want me to say?"

"Not say..." Zelos answered from the futon, "You could entertain me."

"I'm making you dinner!" she turned, kitchen knife in hand – she hadn't meant to threaten, but she had been holding it anyway. "Isn't that enough?"

"Well I'm bored."

"Entertain yourself," she grunted and turned round to cutting carrots again. "You could help me, too."

"You know I can't cook Mizuho dishes."

"You could learn," she sighed. "With all the time you've been here today, you could have."

"How was I supposed to know it'd rain for so much?" Zelos bemoaned.

"I've told you before... the rainy season in Mizuho isn't something to make fun of," the ninja sighed and counted the carrots she had used.

"...why is the kitchen so close to the bedroom, anyway?"

Sheena laughed. "Well, sorry for not living in a mansion like some rich people do!" she emptied the carrots into a pot, where they started to boil along with some other vegetables. "We don't have that much space. We can't waste an entire room for the kitchen."

"Yeah, yeah, I know..." Zelos sighed. "I think it's letting up now. Perhaps I can head back in a few minutes..."

"On the Reahaird? You'd lose your way and stamp into a tree after five minutes. Face it, you'll have to stay here for a while longer."

"Well I can't help it," she heard him burrow deep into the futon. "I'm bored."

Sheena knew that all he wanted was attention – he was like that – but she was starting to get a little tired of his all-too-constant 'I'm bored'. If there was any clear disadvantage of having such a small house, she guessed, it was the lack of privacy. For the moment, however, she was done making dinner and what was the point of yelling at him if they would be trapped together for how many more hours? If the storm didn't stop then he'd have to stay the night – she didn't like it when he used the Rheahaird iin the middle of the night, and even less so with a storm such as the one that was falling.

With a sigh the ninja turned around and walked towards the futon, underneath the ex-Chosen's form could be seen, along with some red hair that he had neglected to hide.

"Zelos?"

"Mh?"

"What, you're not coming out?"

"You didn't turn around to talk to me before."

Sheena contained a sigh. "You're just being childish!"

For her surprise, Zelos peeked out of the futon. "I know, I can be your kid!"

She could feel her face heating up almost immediately. "What!"

"And you can take care of me and all!" before she could react, Zelos had almost jumped out of the futon and was now resting his head on her knees. "Yes, momma?"

"What – what are you talking about – let – let go, Zelos!" she tied, ineffectively, to push him off. After a few moments, she gave up. "Why would I want such a troublesome kid, anyway..."

"I'll be a good boy?"

"Yeah, right..." Sheena huffed. Behind her she could hear the stew boiling, but she guessed it wasn't ready just yet. "Zelos..." she looked down at him, "Are you sweating?"

The redhead grimaced, as if he had expecting her to say something less crude. "Am not."

"Yes you are," she moved his hair aside and placed her hand on his forehead, "Did you catch a cold or something?"

"Why would I? I didn't get wet or anything..." Zelos whined.

"Then?"

"What?"

"Why are you sweating, if you don't have a fever?"

He laughed. "Maybe I've been inside the futon for too long."

"Ewww!" the girl exclaimed, jerking her hand away.

She didn't get very far though, as his hand, too, shot up and took hold of hers and brought it down to cup his cheek. From his place on her knees he smiled.

"You know," he said, "This isn't so boring after all."

"...idiot," she murmured and caressed his cheek softly.

"And I kinda like small houses, too. Easier to move."

"Perfect for lazy bums like you."

"Yep!" Zelos grinned and reached out to tug at her hair. "So... you know, can I come... here?"

The ninja raised an eyebrow. "You know you can --"

The redhead's laugh cut her short. "Ok, ok, I'll rephrase. When I'm done with my business at Meltokio... can I come live here?"

She hadn't been expecting that question. Of all things possible, she hadn't been expecting that question, nor did she ever think she had been ready.

But it wasn't so bad.

She knew that because she was smiling. Not only smiling, in fact – her entire expression spoke happiness, and she couldn't control it. She just smiled.

But even after all the years that had gone by, she was still herself, and as soon as she felt her cheeks blush she roughly pushed him off and ran to the stove.

"The stew! Aaah, it looks ruined now..."

"Hey!" Zelos screamed behind her. "You know, I think I deserve an answer more than I deserve dinner."

The ninja just looked at the ruined stew. "...you know you can."

Silence followed and then she heard Zelos letting himself fall on the futon and laugh softly before getting up, and she was firmly enveloped by his arms.

"So," he said, "No dinner?"

"Unless you're willing to help..." she said, allowing herself to rest against him.

He laughed softly, and she smiled.

Outside, the rain kept falling.

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**Notes:** It happened as I thought – I felt like writing Sheelos, I wrote. Thank Suzu Fujibayashi, she convinced me.

I know, things might seem a little sudden up there – but I didn't feel like explaining what their relationship was like at the moment, so instead I just left some clues here and there before the great sudden question.

Anyway, I enjoyed writing this one. It was entertaining _and_ written while a storm raged outside. Coincidence? I wouldn't think so!

Hope you enjoyed. Reviews are, as always, so very appreciated.

_WDR_

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_Dark #1 – Tragic Love_

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	22. Dark 1 Tragic Love ¨¨Hiren¨¨

**Disclaimer:** All appearing characters and places belong to Namco unless otherwise specified.

The O-dai themes belong to the Zeroshii-Wa, but it has closed down now. Ain't that so sad?

**Setting: **In-game.

**Warnings: **One-sided loves, might be Zelos-centric, general angstiness.

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Dark Version,

**#1 – Tragic Love**

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It was not that he didn't want to tell her.

Every time they were together, just the two of them, every time she asked him whether he was alright after a battle, every time she actually laughed at one of his jokes, every time he saw her looking at the brown haired leader of the group, hoping he'd turn around and smile, all those times he'd wanted to tell her.

"Hey," he'd say – and it wouldn't sound nice. It'd be gruff, aggressive, territorial even. "Hey. Look at me. Look at me! I promise I'll look at you, too. Only at you."

But she'd get angry, that much he knew. She wouldn't appreciate being talked to like that; as if she was someone who could be ordered around.

So he never did tell her. It was not that he didn't want to; it's just that he didn't know how. Because _she_, unlike all the girls he'd known, she was real, and honest, and sincere, and he thought that what he felt for her was real, honest and sincere.

So every time they were together, just the two of them, every time he saw her looking at that other man, he wanted to tell her –

Everything

What he thought of her

What he thought of himself

What he had gone through in the past

What he was going through now.

He wanted to ask her to be with him, as more than just friends. He wanted to ask her to hold him in her arms and just be for him what no woman had ever been before...

But he had never felt like that before nor had he ever thought things like that before, so he didn't know how to say and the only words that came to his muddled mind were always the same.

"Hey.

Hey!

Look at me.

Only at me.

Love _me_."

But she wouldn't appreciate being talked to like that, so every time he was about to say anything he changed it into a joke or a tasteless remark about her physical attributes.

He didn't blame her for being angry.

Time went by and, instead of growing closer, he could feel the gap between him and his companions becoming larger and larger with each passing day.

And still she wouldn't look at him and instead longingly stared at the one who just wouldn't return her feelings.

She was suffering (or so he thought) and he was too, and years of emptiness crowned by the refusal of she whom he desired had turned him selfish enough to just stand by and let things happen.

Such a tragic situation, he'd say to himself and smile, trying to enjoy the drama and the romance and being unable to.

And he'd console himself, thinking things he knew were lies

"Who knows.

It's just another whim. It'll pass.

Perhaps she's just like the rest, anyway."

And sometimes the lies were helpful, sometimes they just didn't work.

And then one day came in which he had to make a decision, one so important that he couldn't ask his comrades for advice.

And yet he couldn't help it. That night, as snow fell for the last time in a city he would never visit again, he left his room behind and made his way to hers –

He had to ask her.

He had to tell her. Perhaps now the words would come out correctly, and perhaps her answer would help him see which path to take.

But before he could get much further, there she was – standing by the window, eyes firmly set on something outside.

"Hey!" he called, "Enjoying the scenery, sweet-buns?"

It had been the wrong thing to say. He had known it, but it was even clearer as she turned around. She looked about to cry and she looked angrier than he had seen her before.

"Leave me alone!" she yelled and stormed into her room, slamming the door behind.

He stared at the wooden frame for a few instants before walking to the window. Outside, walking closely together, were two figures: the first clad in red, the second with hair bright and golden.

He knew who they were, and he understood why _she_, the one he had been searching, had escaped.

Once more he stared at the door and wondered if he should knock, and console her. Wipe her tears away and assure her that she wasn't alone, that he was there for her – always – whenever she needed him to.

"Love _me_.

Because I will love _you_."

Zelos Wilder turned around and walked back to his room.

He wouldn't see much of tomorrow.

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**Notes:** If that's not tragic I don't know what is. I'm bad at angst. That's why this was so short. I enjoyed writing this, though – for detailed reasons look down to _WDR talks Lit_, though it's not particularly interesting. Here I'll only say that, when I first started writing the O-Dai I had decided to make each of them an experiment... this was a nice experiment, too.

So it kinda followed Zelos, though you're not told 'till the end... eh, I worry about the IC-ness of it all, but since I enjoyed it, I'm not sure I care. And yes, even if Lloyd was talking with Colette, this was thought of for the Kratos route. Don't complain, it was titled _Tragic Love_, what else could you expect?

I actually wrote this almost right after finishing with the last one, but for almost two weeks I was deprived of internet access, meaning I was unable to post it 'till now. As much as I liked it, I didn't check it... again... so any corrections and/or comments will be very welcome.

See you next time! Hope you enjoyed,

_WDR_

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_Ten Cups of Sugar #1 – Next to you_

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_WDR talks Lit_

A Latin-American writer once said that a short story wins by knock-out, a novel wins because of all the rounds it endures.

What that means is simply that a short story needs to have unity of impression for it to work: it comes; it hits the reader and leaves but leaves an impression. This is achieved by the use of a series of rhetoric elements and most importantly, I believe, by the mood.

Think of any story by Raymond Carver (a writer I recommend), he sets the mood from the very beginning by the use of certain key words; if you for instance read "dirty", "muddy", "crowded" and "dark" in the same paragraph then the mood you'll imagine won't be particularly happy.

I tried to do a vague, somewhat ominous mood in this O-dai. The elements I used were mostly

- The vagueness. Notice how no names were used 'till the very end? Vagueness also created a feeling of universality.

- Abruptness. The story doesn't move until the last moments.

- The focus. While the Narrator keeps in a 3rd person it penetrates the mind of one character alone, which makes the reader feel connected to said character.

- Repetition. Key sentences were repeated to create the illusion of confusion and indecision in the character.

- Structure. This one had a lot of full-stops, mostly to try and imitate the way thoughts tend to appear in one's mind, as if they fell one after the other. They abrupt separation of dialogue may also indicate the character is afflicted by some sort of madness, such as Charlotte Perkins' exellent _The Yellow Wallpaper_, another short story I really recommend.

If you read that all, I thank you. There are times one feels the need to write silly things like that. Who says studying literature does no good? Look! It helped me write fanfiction!

_WDR_ (who is sorry for the short length of the O-dai.)


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